New power stations across Europe could be routinely fitted with carbon-dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology within two years under a proposal by the European Commission.
Good news, eh?
Well, not quite:
Next week, the commission will propose a directive on geological storage of CO2 that would require all new fossil-fuel combustion plants to have “suitable space on the installation site for the equipment necessary to capture and compress CO2”.
Given that we\’ve not yet invented decent carbon capture technology, how do they know how much space to leave?
“Given that we’ve not yet invented decent carbon capture technology, how do they know how much space to leave?”
Sounds very German to me. I once sold a company to Germans, and their lawyers wanted provision for tax they might become liable for at a future point should the German Government change the law to make a particular future event taxable even though it wasn’t now.
I asked them what was the imaginary rate for this imaginary tax. They gave me a filthy look.
It doesn’t matter how much space they leave as long as they measure it in hectares, not acres.
Seeing that the worst case scenario would be balloons, the space required could be considerable.
To be fair, the person who does invent some top quality carbon capture equipment is going to be seriously, seriously rich.
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