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Renewable Energy Is a Less Costly, More Efficient Climate Solution Than Carbon Capture, Study Finds

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18 Feb, 2025

This post was originally published on Eco Watch

The benefits of investing in clean energy, including solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower, make renewables a more cost-effective option compared to carbon capture technology, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, examined two scenarios across 149 countries through 2050: one in which the countries transition 100% of their business-as-usual energies into renewables, or wind-water-solar (WWS) sources, and another scenario in which policies invest in carbon capture (CC) and synthetic direct air carbon capture (SDACC). 

In the second scenario, the energy mix would still include fossil fuels and renewables, the same as the current combination of energy sources. Both scenarios accounted for the same improvements in energy efficiency, Clean Technica reported. The study authors compared the energy costs, public health impacts and changes in emissions of each scenario.

#RenewableEnergy vs. #CarbonCapture “If you spend $1 on carbon capture instead of on wind, water, and solar, you are increasing CO2, air pollution, energy requirements, energy costs, pipelines, and total social costs” @mzjacobson

techxplore.com/news/2025-02…

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— Silicon Valley North – Citizens Climate Lobby (@cclsvn.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 12:58 PM

In the carbon capture scenario, countries would accrue $60 trillion to $80 trillion per year in social costs, or the costs related to energy, health and climate that are created with each additional ton of carbon dioxide emissions. Even if all carbon was captured and stored, this scenario would see a rise in non-carbon dioxide emissions, increased air pollution, higher energy needs and higher infrastructure costs.

By comparison, the WWS scenario accounted for a decrease in energy demand by about 54.4%, a decrease in annual energy costs of around 59.6% and a decline in annual social costs of 91.8%, the study found.

“If you spend $1 on carbon capture instead of on wind, water, and solar, you are increasing CO2, air pollution, energy requirements, energy costs, pipelines, and total social costs,” lead study author Mark Jacobson, lead author of the study and a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, said in a statement

New Study: Carbon Capture Is A Waste Of Money, & Counterproductive

cleantechnica.com/2025/02/15/n… @cleantechnica.bsky.social

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— Mark Z. Jacobson (@mzjacobson.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 2:09 AM

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which was not involved in the study, carbon capture is a technology that captures and stores carbon dioxide, typically from major polluting sites like power plants or industrial facilities. While carbon capture could help reduce emissions from heavily polluting sites, IEA noted that even with increasing deployment of carbon capture globally, the numbers remain far below what is necessary to reach net-zero emissions.

This new study takes the implementation of carbon capture to an extreme and finds even with nearly perfect carbon capture rates, the costs of investing in carbon capture over renewables would still be less beneficial than focusing on clean energy sources over fossil fuel dependence.

“It’s always an opportunity cost to use clean, renewable energy for direct air capture instead of replacing a fossil-fuel CO2 source, just like it’s an opportunity cost to use it for AI or bitcoin mining,” Jacobson said. “You’re preventing renewables from replacing fossil fuel sources because you’re creating more demand for those renewables.”

Further, investing in renewables rather than relying on fossil fuels coupled with carbon capture would lead to improved health outcomes, the study determined. As Stanford University reported, the WWS scenario would avoid 5 million deaths annually and hundreds of millions of other illnesses related to air pollution.

According to the authors, policies should stop promoting CC and SDACC and instead emphasize clean energy solutions.

“The only way to eliminate all air-pollutant and climate-warming gases and particles from energy is to eliminate combustion,” the authors wrote.

The post Renewable Energy Is a Less Costly, More Efficient Climate Solution Than Carbon Capture, Study Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

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ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB has gained Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) status for its Gearless Mill Drive (GMD) ring motor — technology used to drive large grinding mills in the mining industry.

An EPD is a standardised document that provides detailed information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, the EPD highlights ABB’s commitment to transparency, environmental responsibility and supporting customers in making informed decisions on sustainability in their supply chains.

ABB analysed the environmental impact of a ring motor across its entire life cycle from supply chain and production to usage and end-of-life disposal. The study was conducted for a ring motor of a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill with an installed power of 24 MW and was based on a reference service life of 25 years.

“Sustainability is at the core of our purpose at ABB, influencing how we operate and innovate for customers,” said Andrea Quinta, Sustainability Specialist at ABB. “By earning the Environmental Product Declaration for our ring motor, we emphasise our environmental stewardship and industry leadership for this technology. We adhered to the highest standards throughout this process, as we do in the ABB Ring Motor factory every day. This recognition highlights to the mining industry what they are bringing into their own operations when they work with ABB.”

The comprehensive LCA was conducted at ABB’s factory in Bilbao, Spain, and was externally verified and published in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044. It will remain valid for five years.

The ring motor, a key component of the GMD, is a drive system without any gears where the transmission of the torque between the motor and the mill is done through the magnetic field in the air gap between the motor stator and the motor rotor. It optimises grinding applications in the minerals and mining industries by enabling variable-speed operation, leading to energy and cost savings.

The full EPD for the ABB GMD Ring Motor can be viewed on EPD International.

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