Using the conservative cost of retrofitting Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) to an Australian brown coal plant, the levelised cost of electricity is 14% cheaper than new build brown coal plant with CCS and 18% cheaper for black coal a new study by Gamma Energy Technology and the CO2CRC has found. The report, Retrofitting CCS to Coal - Enhancing Australia's Energy Security, analyses the options for retrofitting brown and black coal fired power stations in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Urgency for CCS in Australia
Delivering energy security while meeting future emissions reduction targets at the lowest economic cost is an immediate challenge to Australia. To tackle this trilemma, it is imperative that commercial-scale Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is developed and available over the next 10 to 15 years to avoid ongoing disruption to energy security.

For copies of the Roadmap and the extensive working papers – go to www.powerfactbook.com/media-categories/reports 

The recent South Australian royal commission urged the development of “a comprehensive national energy policy that enables all technologies, including nuclear, to contribute to a reliable, low-carbon electricity network at the lowest possible cost.”  Governments should heed this advice and also the commission’s warning that the energy transition “should be based on evidence not emotion.”  If this is not done, it is perhaps inevitable that South Australia’s recent woes will not be the last “energy crisis” of the years ahead