Power Industry Told Technology Must Change to Meet Co2 Targets

Companies operating plants in the US have been told they must come up with new technological advancements if they are to meet US Government Co2 emissions targets by 2030.

The warning comes from the executive vice president of US energy company American Electric Power (AEP), Nicholas K Atkins, in a keynote speech at the Power-Gen International conference in New Orleans.

Atkins also believes that "state-of-the-art" technologies are not advanced enough to achieve 1990 Co2 levels by 2030.

"The issue is to match technology to what is going on to deal with carbon reductions," says Atkins.

To meet these targets and reduce the reliance on traditional fossil fuels, AEP is working with Japanese and Chinese companies to advance technology.

One such project is a chilled ammonia plant scheduled for 2012, which aims to capture and sequester 1.5 million metric tonnes of Co2 a year.

The US Government must create a "certain and consistent national policy for reasonable carbon controls to including cost effectiveness, realistic emissions targets and monitoring," says Atkins.

Other voices in the industry, such as executive vice president of US company Entergy, Mark T. Savoff, believes the government should play a limited role, at least where technology is concerned.

"The US government should not mandate technology, let the market function and drive technology," Savoff says.

By Ozge Ibrahim