This report responds to a request from the Australian Conservation Foundation to undertake a desk-top review of the cost of carbon capture and storage (CCS) applied to electricity generation in Australia.

Researchers surveyed the latest available evidence from Australian sources (CO2CRC, Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, the Federal Department of Energy and CSIRO). As a point of reference, they compare the estimated costs of coal generation plus CCS to the most recent publicly available data of the cost of wind generation (and including 50% storage as a proportion of capacity).

The analysis suggests carbon capture and storage is likely to cost at least six times as much as wind generation plus storage, with comparable dispatchability (ability to generate electricity when needed to meet demand).

The author would like to stress that this is a desk-top study of other organisation’s estimates. The organisations cited – while no doubt using their best endeavours to provide accurate estimates – have very limited data to draw on. For electricity generation, only two commercial-scale capture and storage examples exist globally, and one of those two have already been mothballed and the second operates far below its design capacity. Another seven proposals have been studied, but rejected, and so their cost estimates (similar to the claims of the two that were developed) have limited value. New technologies may reduce capture costs in future, but none of these technologies appear to be anywhere close to commercialisation.