CSS not competitive?

If carbon capture should be mandated or subsidized in the European Union, a possible result of 12 current pilot projects,

then lignite could prevail in Germany as the mainstay of fossil fuel power generation. The added energy requirements of capture and storage translate to extracting a quarter billion tons a year.

Excavation of two Suez Canals per month

The commensurate excavation of two Suez Canals per month, however, would constitute disproportionate mining and reclamation efforts compared with diversified concepts of regional sustainability.

In Brandenburg, Germanys second largest lignite mining state, the Advisory Council for Sustainable Development and Resource Protection has concluded that CCS would be far more expensive than an alternative strategy of energy efficiency, renewable energies, and new storage technologies. Complex subterranean zoning regulations will be required for any CO2 sequestration.

Competitiveness of CCS questionable

The decisive challenge for future lignite usage has therefore become the maintenance of investment credibility despite costly generating technologies relying on uncharted geological territory.

Guest article from Jefffrey H. Michel

Germany mines 175 million metric tons (Mt) of lignite
	or brown coal, per year for producing one quarter of its electricity (150 TWh/a) in 22 GW of mine-mouth power stations.

Lignite worthless for export
	The calorific value lies at 7.8 to 10.5 MJ/kg, half that of firewood, necessitating three times the fuel tonnage of hard coal (27 - 33 MJ/kg) in power generation.

Lignite composition
	Mined lignite consists of one third elemental carbon that is permeated with residual groundwater, mineral impurities, and sulphur deposited by prehistoric volcanoes.

Lignite power plants and open-cast mining
	These installations collectively emit 57 million tons of CO2/a. Lignite is employed both from the companys own mines and from the MIBRAG mining corporation near Leipzig.

Less full load hours at coal power plants
	Under the German Renewable Energy Sources Act, conventional power plants have been subordinated to alternative technologies that are granted priority access to the grid.