Carbon capture and storage’s role within Australia’s energy transition: necessary, safe, and reliable

Abstract

Globally, the annual amount of carbon dioxide stored via carbon capture and storage (CCS) must increase to 75–100 times the current CCS levels over the next 20 years. Within Australia, the proposed CCS projects offer the opportunity to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint by 15–20% whilst encouraging new developments and expanded energy outputs. Any potential barriers to the efficient roll-out of these CCS projects, such as delays in regulatory approvals, must be mitigated as a matter of priority. CO2CRC considers that an active engagement process between CCS project proponents, regulators, and government will improve the collective understanding and genuinely facilitate this critical project roll-out phase. New technologies, such as enhanced injection (e.g. MicroBubble, surfactants) and innovative monitoring and modelling capacities, offer the opportunity to make CCS cheaper and dramatically improve storage efficiency, making the technology applicable to a broader geographic and geological footprint, including to those areas onshore with poorer reservoir characteristics. These new injection and monitoring approaches are also genuine enablers for the roll-out of Direct Air Capture plus Storage, as well as for CCS to support hard-to-abate industries – by bringing low-cost and efficient storage to the CO₂ sources/capture foci themselves. The industry’s willingness to invest in CCS, a smooth regulatory approvals pipeline and the increased efficiencies derived from a range of new technologies will ensure that CCS’s long-held promise is realised and delivers the much-needed reductions in national and global emissions.