https://techxplore.com/news/2025-02-carbon-capture-renewables.html logotype Topics * Week's top * Latest news * Unread news * Subscribe [ ] Science X Account [ ] [ ] [*] Remember me Sign In Click here to sign in with or Forget Password? Not a member? Sign up Learn more * Automotive * Business * Computer Sciences * Consumer & Gadgets * Electronics & Semiconductors * Energy & Green Tech * Engineering * Hardware * Hi Tech & Innovation * Internet * Machine learning & AI * Other * Robotics * Security * Software * Telecom [INS::INS] * * share this! * 96 * Tweet * Share * Email 1. Home 2. Business 1. Home 2. Energy & Green Tech * * * --------------------------------------------------------------------- February 14, 2025 The GIST Editors' notes This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread Carbon capture more costly than switching to renewables, researchers find by Josie Garthwaite, Stanford University wind farm Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain For most countries around the world, sourcing energy entirely from wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower by 2050 would reduce their energy needs and costs, improve air quality, and help slow climate change, according to a study in Environmental Science & Technology. These benefits, the authors say, could be realized at a fraction of the cost of implementing technologies that remove carbon dioxide (CO [2]) from the air and capture it from stationary emitters like industrial smokestacks. "If you spend $1 on carbon capture instead of on wind, water, and solar, you are increasing CO[2], air pollution, energy requirements, energy costs, pipelines, and total social costs," said lead study author Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and Stanford School of Engineering. This holds true even if zero-emission energy systems power the technology deployed to extract carbon dioxide, Jacobson added. "It's always an opportunity cost to use clean, renewable energy for direct air capture instead of replacing a fossil-fuel CO[2] source, just like it's an opportunity cost to use it for AI or bitcoin mining. You're preventing renewables from replacing fossil fuel sources because you're creating more demand for those renewables," he said. [INS::INS] Comparing two extremes Jacobson and co-authors compared the annual energy costs, emissions, public health impacts, and social costs associated with implementing either of two extremes across all sectors in 149 countries over the next 25 years. One extreme would see a complete switch to using heat and electricity generated by wind, solar, geothermal, and hydropower for all energy needs, as well as some advances in energy efficiency; cuts to energy demand through improved public transit, increased cycling, and telecommuting; and commercialization of hydrogen fuel cells for long-distance air travel and shipping. For this case, the researchers assume hydrogen would be produced using water and electricity from renewable sources, not with fossil fuels, which is the way most hydrogen is made today. The other extreme would see countries maintain their current reliance on fossil fuels with some renewables, nuclear, and biomass--while improving energy efficiency by the same amount as in the all-renewable case. In this second extreme, all 149 countries would also add equipment to capture carbon dioxide from industrial flues and use technology known as synthetic direct air carbon capture to pull CO[2] from ambient air. Comparing these two "unrealistically extreme cases," the authors write, distills the climate, health, and social costs associated with investing money in carbon capture and direct air capture that might otherwise go toward electrification and wind, water, and solar power. Neither case considers the potential costs or benefits of efforts to enhance carbon sequestration in natural carbon sinks like wetlands, forests, soil, and oceans. Benefits of eliminating combustion Jacobson and co-authors found that if the 149 studied countries successfully eliminated fossil fuels and biomass combustion through renewables and efficiency gains by 2050, they could reduce their end-use energy needs by more than 54%. Annual energy costs, the authors concluded, would decline by nearly 60%. Hundreds of millions of illnesses and 5 million deaths per year related to air pollution from energy--whether from woodburning cookstoves and kerosene lamps or from gas-fired power stations--would be avoided. "When you add wind turbines to replace a coal plant, you're eliminating not only the CO[2] but also the pollution from the coal," said Jacobson, who is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Widespread electrification reduces energy demand in part because electric heat pumps and vehicles are more efficient than gas heaters and appliances, conventional air conditioners, and internal combustion engines, Jacobson said. Other energy savings come from eliminating energy needed to extract, transport, and refine oil, gas, coal, and uranium. "You can have the most efficient way of removing CO[2] from the air, but that does not change the efficiency of combustion. You're keeping that inefficient energy infrastructure the same," said Jacobson. "It's much cheaper and more efficient just to replace the fossil source with electricity or heat provided by a renewable source." [INS::INS] Climate policies that promote expansion of renewables as well as carbon capture and direct air capture to deal with emissions from fossil fuels and biomass "do not distinguish between good and poor solutions," and any policy promoting carbon capture and direct air capture "should be abandoned," the authors write in the study. They add, "The only way to eliminate all air-pollutant and climate-warming gases and particles from energy is to eliminate combustion." Co-authors of the study include Danning Fu, Biomedical Data Science MS; Daniel Sambor, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and Andreas Muhlbauer, Atmosphere/ Energy MS, Energy Systems Ph.D. Fu is now a Ph.D. student at the University of Cambridge. More information: Mark Z. Jacobson et al, Energy, Health, and Climate Costs of Carbon-Capture and Direct-Air-Capture versus 100%-Wind-Water-Solar Climate Policies in 149 Countries, Environmental Science & Technology (2025). DOI: 10.1021/ acs.est.4c10686 Journal information: Environmental Science & Technology Provided by Stanford University Citation: Carbon capture more costly than switching to renewables, researchers find (2025, February 14) retrieved 15 February 2025 from https://techxplore.com/news/2025-02-carbon-capture-renewables.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. 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This approach is more cost-effective than investing in carbon capture technologies. Eliminating fossil fuel and biomass combustion could cut energy needs by over 54% and reduce energy costs by nearly 60%, preventing millions of pollution-related illnesses and deaths annually. This summary was automatically generated using LLM. Full disclaimer Let us know if there is a problem with our content Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines). Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request [-- please select one -- ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Your message to the editors [ ] Your email (only if you want to be contacted back) [ ] Send Feedback Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors. Your feedback is important to us. 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