On Apr 14, 2007, at 3:39 PM, new.morning wrote:
Sequestering CO2 at coal fired electric generation plants is more
viable. And he points to this "install carbon capture and
sequestration capacity at 800 large coal-fired plants." But there is
no viable technology today to retrofit existing coal plants for
sequestration. New coal-to-gas conversion plants, IF designed and
built to do so, can be retrofitted to sequester carbon -- in concept.
Though this has not been demonstrated at scale -- and currently is
very costly -- possibly adding 50-100% to the price of electricity.
(Though the goal is 10%). And it would mean decommissioning 800+
existing, not fully paid for existing coal plants -- and constructing
800 new ones. Consumers, investors and/or government would need to pay
for BOTH the old plants and the new plants. And the conversion would
take 10-20 years plus, even assuming no opposition to the idea (like
that is going to happen).
Thanks for your interesting and insightful comments NewMorn.
I've often wondered if we took the money spent on the war in Iraq and
the War on Drugs what level of change we could create with those
dollars? Retrofit all coal-fired plants? Excellent schools for ALL
Americans? Universal healthcare? As long as corporations and lobby
groups run our government, it'll likely never happen. But it's
certainly something I'd like to see my tax dollars go for.
What's frustrating to me is the successful seeds of doubt numerous
conservative TV and radio hosts plant into their listeners. There are
many people who thus see Global Climate Change as a political issue
rather than a scientific one. Global Climate Change as a liberal
agenda. If you're a good conservative, you don't believe in such
liberal thinking--or so they'd like their listeners to believe.
I don't know if you saw the segment on 60 Minutes last week on
nuclear power in France, but that's where I see the US headed. IIRC
there are 15 plants on the drawing boards in the US. What was really
impressive about that segment was the small city sized nuclear waste
recycling plant the French have. We would be fools not to do the same
thing if that is the path we take. But I strongly suspect the wheels
of industry and government (and the money this industry will
generate) will push this down our throats whether want it or not.
