Carbon Management Strategies for Existing U.S. Generation Capacity: A Vintage-Based Approach

Abstract

This chapter examines the existing stock of fossil-fired power generation capacity in the United States within the context of climate change. The ultimate objective of current international efforts to address climate change, stated succinctly by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is the “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” Progressing towards this long-range goal of a net zero-emitting global energy sector requires that some actions be taken in the near term to slow the increase in global CO2 emissions. It is not unreasonable to believe that a significant fraction of this early mitigation effort can be achieved through aggressive deployment of existing renewable energy technologies and continued advancements in energy efficiency. This chapter draws upon specialized tools developed by Battelle to analyze the characteristics of this subset of U.S. power generation assets and explore the relationships between plant type, location, emissions, and vintage. It examines the economics of retrofit capture technologies and the proximity of these existing power plants to geologic reservoirs with promise for long-term storage of CO2. The average costs for retrofitting these plants and disposing of their CO2 into nearby geologic reservoirs have been presented in the chapter.