The power sector
Emissions in the power sector come from combustion of fossil fuels for electricity production and contributed to 24% of the global greenhouse gas emissions in 2002. The business-as-usual emission growth is estimated to be 79% from 2002 to 2030 according to The International Energy Agency (IEA). Five major abatement opportunities have been identified. Together they have the potential to reduce emissions with 35% below the 2002 emission level. The identified opportunities are:
- Installation of Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS) is assumed to ramp up to commercial scale over the period 2015-20
- Emerging renewables growing to 15–20% of total power production by 2030
- Nuclear growing ~100% to an installed base of ~740 GW
- Higher CO2 prices motivates growth in gas instead of growth in coal, and earlier replacement of old coal plants, leading to higher overall CO2 efficiency
- Demand reduction and increased energy efficiency is the most cost-effective measure to reduce production, however, actions should target end-user sectors in order to realize this potential
Beyond this there is clearly a technical potential for further reductions, but at a higher cost.
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