It's ironic that this piece opens with the statement that " In many sectors, replacing fossil fuel while maintaining energy affordability & security is, I’m sorry to say, wickedly difficult." Because the rest of the piece describes an even more wickedly difficult solution through CCUS. At least with renewables, storage, and nuclear, we have known technologies that are operating at large scale, and have demonstrated periods of zero-carbon electricity in several regions of the world. Moreover, it's ironic that this piece was published on the day that we heard that renewable generation outpaced nuclear generation for the first time in the US - https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-Solar-and-Wind-Power-Generation-Tops-Nuclear-for-First-Time.html.
Have been following this series closely - terrific framing, and as a data person, even better analysis. Thanks!
It's ironic that this piece opens with the statement that " In many sectors, replacing fossil fuel while maintaining energy affordability & security is, I’m sorry to say, wickedly difficult." Because the rest of the piece describes an even more wickedly difficult solution through CCUS. At least with renewables, storage, and nuclear, we have known technologies that are operating at large scale, and have demonstrated periods of zero-carbon electricity in several regions of the world. Moreover, it's ironic that this piece was published on the day that we heard that renewable generation outpaced nuclear generation for the first time in the US - https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-Solar-and-Wind-Power-Generation-Tops-Nuclear-for-First-Time.html.
Finally, I'd recommend a review of Michael Barnard's thorough review of CCUS here - https://cleantechnica.com/2024/06/30/ccus-is-mostly-an-oil-gas-shell-game-sfu-seminar-slides-notes/. He makes the point that CCS simply cannot operate at the scale necessary to be material.