SCHWARZE PUMPE, Germany -Swedish energy company Vattenfall
opened a small coal plant in Germany on Tuesday which will produce almost
carbon-free power in a test of technology that could help the fight against
climate change.
The project will produce enough electricity for a town of
20,000 people to pilot a process called carbon capture and storage (CCS), which
supporters hope can tackle both energy security and climate change woes.
At 30 megawatts the pilot is still less than one tenth the
size of a full-scale coal plant and commercial-scale tests of the technology are
at least five years off, analysts say.
"We want to make electricity clean," said Lars Josefsson,
chief executive of the Vattenfall Group. "This is an important milestone. It's
going to be a marathon but we're committed."
Analysts welcomed the announcement.
"Everybody's always criticizing CCS for never having a fully
working model. Well here's one fully working model," said Stuart Haszeldine, a
geologist at Edinburgh University and CCS expert.
"Maybe by 2013 you could predict a full size power station
operating with CCS."
Coal is cheap and plentiful but also produces more
heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) than energy sources such as oil, gas and
renewables. CCS works by trapping those gases from coal plants and burying them
in porous rocks underground.
A U.N. panel of climate experts says the technology could
underpin the fight to slow rising temperatures and avert more powerful storms,
droughts and rising seas.
CCS also has the support of many governments. But some
environmental organizations say it is a distraction which will delay a global
transition to renewable alternatives such as solar power, away from fossil fuels
like coal, and accuse energy companies of making token investments.
"We're taking our responsibility seriously," said Josefsson at the
inauguration of the 70 million euro ($98.92 million) plant built over two years
which sits next to a conventional coal-fired plant 100 times as large.
