Note:  This is the first in a series of articles by ClimateIntel looking into legal, policy, and investment drivers that may influence the long-term viability of “clean-coal” technologies as tools for combating climate change. 

As Swedish Company Vattenfall prepares to commence operation of its new pilot clean-coal plant in Schwarze Pumpe, Germany, clean-coal advocates and policymakers should take notice and cheer.  Then, however, they should step back and reflect on the considerable technical, legal, and policy work left to be done if the “clean-coal” energy industry is to play its part in balancing global energy consumption with carbon emissions.

Vattenfall’s plant will not be the first facility to test the use of advanced carbon-capture technologies, but it may be one of the first coal-fired facilities to do so while fully accounting for its CO2 emissions through carbon capture and sequestration (”CCS“).  This ability to address the entire pollutant lifecycle in a single project is an important step if the industry is going to move from funding pilot-level projects to real-world, commercial scale facilities.  Indeed, Vattenfall claims the facility will provide data necessary to move toward a larger commercial-scale clean-coal/CCS demonstration project at its Jänschwalde facility, also in Germany.

In the long run, however, full-scale commercialization of clean coal technologies will require more than just technological advancements.  Even as scientists and engineers work out the details and uncertainties inherent in CCS systems and other pollution control technologies, policymakers should be crafting the legal and policy drivers necessary to create and support a “clean-coal-ready” economy.  Such drivers include:

• Legal and regulatory systems that address clear industry oversight authority, clarify long-term liability for sequestered carbon, and establish standards for facility siting, design, construction, operation, closure, and post-closure of clean coal/CCS facilities and related infrastructure;
• Policy incentives to internalize the cost of carbon emissions and reward investments in clean technologies and related infrastructure;
• Continued research into the human health and environmental impacts of both short and long-term carbon sequestration to convince the public, particularly in communities near potential clean-coal facilities and CCS sites, that it is safe and reliable.

The startup of the Vattenfall pilot facility is an encouraging sign on the technical front.  What the industry needs now is similar progress as to the legal, policy, and scientific efforts necessary to make large-scale investment in clean-coal legally and economically viable as well.

For further information about this topic, please contact Akin Gump.