The international CCS Knowledge Centre is reacting to today鈥檚 announcement from SaskPower regarding the retirement of Units 4 and 5 at the Boundary Dam Power Station.
SaskPower has revealed their intention to retire Units 4 and 5 in 2021 and 2024, respectively, if an equivalency agreement is reached between the provincial and federal government. Despite this decision, the news release from SaskPower notes that carbon capture and storage (CCS) will continue to play an active role in reducing emissions in Saskatchewan.
The International CCS Knowledge Centre is spearheading a study on second generation carbon capture and storage at the Shand Power Station.
The next generation of CCS technology will be significantly cheaper, more efficient, and integrate well with renewable energy, according to the preliminary results of the CCS feasibility study on SaskPower's Shand Power Station.
CCS has critical roles in providing reliable baseload power and mitigating greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. Once the feasibility study is complete, results will inform SaskPower of the potential to add CCS on Shand as part of the province's future energy mix.
The International CCS Knowledge Centre will apply these principles to other feasibility and studies throughout the world in a variety of industrial applications, including cement, waste-to-energy, as well as coal power.
Recent advancements in engineering and design garnered from the feasibility study take large-scale carbon capture up to a new level, creating a second-generation in CCS.
The substantial experience gained from operating SaskPower's Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture facility (the world's first commercial-scale CCS project using post-combustion technology on a coal-fired power plant) is having positive impacts on the design contemplated in the feasibility study.聽
Scaling from a 150-megawatt coal-fired unit to a 300-megawatt coal-fired unit, the new CCS design would have the potential to capture as much as 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
As with any second-generation technology, cost reductions are expected. Cost reductions for a next facility were originally anticipated to be 30 per cent less; however, this study's preliminary findings indicate the potential for significantly deeper cost reductions.
There are also several important environmental benefits of the new design beyond CO2 abatement. The design takes advantage of the CCS plant's ability to vary the plant output, and to increase the capture rate at lower loads beyond 90 per cent, such that it supports the integration of additional renewable energy from wind and solar.
The new design also requires no additional cooling water and eliminates all sulfur dioxide emissions.
The CCS feasibility study on the Shand Power Station is due for publication release later this year.
