A recent report by a U.S. Congressional committee with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommends the Department of Energy's project funding going toward carbon capture and storage (CSS) at coal-fired power plants receive much more oversight.
Since 2009, the Department of Energy (DOE) has invested $1.1 billion in 11 projects to show how carbon dioxide emissions from coal-power and industrial facilities could be captured and stored but the GAO report identified significant risks to DOE's management of the coal CCS demonstration projects
"Largely due to external factors that affected their economic viability, coal CCS projects were generally less successful than CCS projects at industrial facilities, such as chemical plants," said the GAO committee.
DOE provided nearly $684 million to eight coal projects, resulting in one operational facility. Three projects were withdrawn—two prior to receiving funding—and one was built and entered operations, but halted operations in 2020 due to changing economic conditions. Additionally, DOE terminated funding agreements with the other four projects prior to construction.
DOE also provided approximately $438 million to three projects designed to capture and store carbon from industrial facilities, two of which were constructed and became operational, and the third of which was canceled.
"Economic factors, including decreased natural gas prices and uncertainty regarding carbon markets, negatively affected the economic viability of coal power plants and thus these projects," project representatives told the GAO committee.
The report also identified high-risk, selection, negotiation processes and bypassing cost control measures as reasons the coal projects were so unsuccessful, specifically citing the rush to begin spending American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds quickly as a factor.
