WANTED:
The Right Technologies
at the Right Price  | | Based on research from the Global Energy Technology Strategy Program (GTSP), JGCRI researchers are exploring potential technologies for an energy portfolio—specifically energy-producing technologies that can be competitive with fossil fuels or technologies that can reduce the CO2 in our current energy system. |
The Earth’s average temperature
is rising. So is the level of
carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth’s
atmosphere. Blame it—in part—on
human beings. Fossil fuel emissions
from energy production are
considered the greatest contributor
to rising CO2 in the atmosphere
and, ultimately, global climate
change.
Scientists at the Battelle-managed
Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory (PNNL) are developing
a technology strategy to
address the risks of increasing CO2
concentrations and their effect on
global climate change as well as the
costs associated with limiting CO2
concentrations.
“The need to develop a portfolio of
energy technologies is the first and most
enduring lesson that comes out of this
work,” said Dr. Jae Edmonds, who manages
the Global Energy Technology Strategy
Program at PNNL’s Joint Global Climate
Research Institute (JGCRI).
“Energy plays a critical role in our standard
of living as well as in climate change,”
Edmonds said. “Because energy from fossil
fuels is inexpensive, there is not yet an
incentive to stop using it.”
| Climate Research—Integrating the Scientific and Human Sides | | PNNL’s Joint Global Change Research Institute
takes a broad view of climate change, seeking
to understand the connection between humans,
climate, technology and economics. Using an
integrated assessment approach, JGCRI
researchers are developing a strategy for
identifying the appropriate technologies for
preventing or slowing down the release of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. They focus
on technologies for particular regions or parts
of the world—that could be implemented on a
scale large enough to achieve the required
emissions reductions. Created in 2001, the
JGCRI is a collaborative effort between PNNL
and the University of Maryland. For more
information on JGCRI, see the institute’s web
site at http://globalchange.umd.edu/.
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JGCRI researchers have developed a
unique integrated modeling framework
for evaluating the interactions between
energy technologies and market
forces under different scenarios of
economic growth and a variety of
policy and institutional settings.
This work suggests that developing
a portfolio of technologies
could have a dramatic effect on
the cost of addressing climate
change. The portfolio would
include improved versions of
more familiar technologies such as
fossil fuels as well as economically
competitive versions of less-familiar
technologies such as advanced
biotechnology.
Edmonds and his colleagues
are conducting in-depth research
on technologies that are critical to achieving
an energy system with net-zero carbon
emissions. These technologies include
carbon dioxide capture and storage, a
technology that captures CO2 from the
smokestacks of power plants and deposits
it deep underground; renewables, such as
wind and solar; and specialty crops, such as
switch grass. Like other plants, switch grass
takes CO2 out of the air during photosynthesis,
but it can be burned to produce
energy. This results in a recycling of
atmospheric CO2 instead of releasing fossil
CO2.
For more information on GTSP see
the program’s web site at http://www.pnl.gov/gtsp/index.stm.
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