Alstom Says Carbon Capture and Storage Cost Will Be Competitive

Alstom SA (ALO), the world’s third-largest power-equipment maker, said the cost for carbon capture and storage will be competitive with renewable energy as a way of curbing climate-harming emissions by 2015.

Alstom’s CCS technology would capture carbon-dioxide emissions and pipe them underground for permanent storage at a cost of 54 euros ($78) a metric ton from a coal plant and 74 euros from a natural gas-fed plant in 2015, Susanne Shields, a Paris-based spokeswoman, said by e-mail today. Those costs would fall to 37 euros and 49 euros by 2030, she said.

Governments around the world are seeking to cut emissions while securing energy supplies. Carbon capture technology is one way of preventing emissions blamed for climate change from being released into the atmosphere. More than half the world’s power will still be produced from fossil fuels in 2035, and CCS may account for as much as 20 percent of emissions reductions by 2050, Alstom said, citing International Energy Agency data.

The costs equate to 6.5 to 8.5 cents a kilowatt-hour, Alstom said. Capturing and transporting CO2 from gases released after combustion requires energy. The remaining combustion gases are then emitted through the chimney. The costs include the capture, transport and storage of CO2.

CCS equipment costs 500 million to 1 billion euros, depending on size and fuel, Shields said. The costs were calculated from Alstom’s 13 demonstration projects.

European Union emissions permits for December have risen 16 percent this year to 16.57 euros a ton as of 11 a.m. on London’s ICE Futures Europe. Prices may rise to 47.69 euros by 2020, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts.

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Airlie in London at cairlie@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mike Anderson at manderson34@bloomberg.net

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