20 COVER STORY
@ green | September-October , 2022 fuels . And there are more projections that renewable energy and energy storage are becoming more affordable in the coming years . Do we still need new gas fields ? The issue of the expansion of gas use will not be complete without addressing the potential of Carbon Capture and Storage ( CCS ) technology . Norway has shown two successful Carbon Capture and Storage ( CCS ) projects with natural gas in production . However , this method only reduces 20 per cent of the carbon from the gas . Eighty per cent of the carbon will still be emitted when it is combusted ( Carbon capture and storage might be failing , 2022 ).
Recent reports suggested that CCS at power plants have failed , and the cost of carbon capture technology is exorbitant , at the rate of US $ 100-500 per ton . Plus , some of these CCS technologies emit almost as much carbon as it captures .
In addition , there are also issues with leakages of stored CO2 .
“ Even if the carbon dioxide can be injected underground , there is no guarantee that it will stay there and not leak into the atmosphere . There are several real-world examples of failure to keep gas underground . The best example is the California Aliso Canyon gas leak in 2015 , the worst man-made greenhouse gas disaster in US history when 97,000 metric tons of methane leaked into the atmosphere .”
- Carbon Capture has a Long History of Failure , 2022
In short , it is better not to emit carbon in the first place .
Therefore , the potential for natural gas as a low or zero-emission fuel is not encouraging . Perhaps we can put a little bit of money into gas as the demand will increase temporarily , and it will benefit Malaysia as a gas exporting nation , but to allocate almost all resources from 2026 to 2030 to gas is perplexing .
2026-2030 Implementation also included this :
• Phasing down energy subsidy It is a noteworthy aspiration but will not be easy to implement . The government of the day must have the courage to remove fuel subsidies . No protest on the street yet ?
2031 to 2040 Implementation includes :
• Development of electrical vehicle ecosystem and energy efficiency via digital transformation
Why wait until 2031 ? We should embark on these today . Immediate action should be taken to evaluate all the different paths other nations take on these technologies , and we should choose the best policy suited to Malaysia . We will be way behind on the technology curve if we only start this in 2031 .
• Large-scale energy storage for RE , Entry into a hydrogen economy , and hydrogen hub in Sarawak
If renewable energy by 2040 is only eight per cent , why do we need large-scale energy storage ? Am I missing something ?
Perhaps the idea is to use hydrogen as energy storage with power from the Sarawak dam . But we need to ascertain first that the hydroelectric from this dam is not dirty . If it is dirty , the hydrogen produced will have high embodied carbon . Dirty hydrogen is not clean energy . Who will buy impure hydrogen from us ?
Therefore , we need a study conducted on our hydro dam immediately . It may require a large project to reduce carbon emissions from our hydropower . The study must start now so that by 2031 , we can produce cleaner hydrogen from the dam in Sarawak .
There is much groundwork before considering large-scale energy storage and the hydrogen economy . Without addressing clean energy more aggressively , we will be wasting our money on energy storage and the hydrogen economy .