DOE Pumps $126.6 Million Into Carbon Sequestration

RickRussellTX writes "The DOE awarded $126.6 million in grants today to projects that will pump 1 million tons of CO2 into underground caverns at sites in California and Ohio. Environmental groups call carbon sequestration "a scam", claiming that it is too expensive and uncertain to be competitive with non-coal alternatives like wind and solar. I just hope nobody drops a Mentos down the wrong pipe."

Comments

Re:So...

[Ex-MislTech]

The SEGs system is online now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEGS

In 2.5 square miles they produce 350 Mega-watts of power
and do it with reflective troughs and heating high temperature
oil to drive a steam turbine.

They store hot oil and get some production even after sundown,
and then switch to natural gas for a few hours til sunrise.

If the uninhabited sections of the Mojave Desert
were used for this system, it would power all of North America.

The Mojave is over 22,000 sq. miles, if 10,000 of it was used
for a SEGs type setup you would get 4,000 times the current
power production ie. 1.41 Tera-Watts rough estimate.

In 2004 it was estimated by scientists that total world
energy usage was 15 Tera-Watts for all types of energy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_resources_and_consumption

The proposed SEGs expansion would produce almost 10% of that.

We have our silver bullet, it will just be a monster to build.

North Africa could use the Sahara and power all of Africa
and Europe.

The best photovoltaic cells are 20% effective, The best Thermals
have hit 41% per wikipedia, and 60% being theoretically possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy#High-temperature_collectors

Here in the US we could also use a large part of the 120,000 sq. mi.
Sonora Desert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonora_desert

Just my 2 cents...