Despite the attacks by Oregon’s Governor Kate Brown, and Governor-Elect Tina Kotek on natural gas suppliers, NW Natural Gas continues to prove they are a viable carbon neutral option. Representative Khanh Pham (D-Portland), co-sponsored HB 2021 (2021), said the bill “builds on existing energy policy to ensure Oregon’s electricity is generated from clean energy and carbon-free resources like solar and wind energy by 2040.” Her testimony neglected to mention it halts growth in natural gas usage.

HB 2021 implants into law a requirement for retail electricity providers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with electricity sold to Oregon consumers to 80% below baseline emissions levels by 2030, 90% below baseline emissions levels by 2035, and 100% below baseline emissions levels by 2040.

Oregon government has not made it clear to Oregonians that not all electricity is carbon neutral. It takes coal, or oil or natural gas to produce electricity. In a study by Charles Frank, Brookings Institution, he made a comparison of baseline net cost of five options to replace coal. The net cost per KWH for Wind is 5.64 cents, Solar is 18.74 cents, Hydro is -.33 cents, Nuclear is 1.04 cents, and Gas CC is -3.18 cents. What the carbon neutral proponents want you to pay is an additional 21.92 cents per KWH for solar electricity, and for wind an increase of 8.82 cents per KWH.

The benefits of reducing carbon emissions do not appear to be cost effective for higher priced options. According to Frank's report, the cost of reduced emission benefits are: Wind is 4.77 cents, Solar is 5.11 cents, Hydro is 4.83 cents, Nuclear is 5.16 cents and Gas CC is 3.46 cents. Frank answers the question of why the costs per KWH of wind and solar are much higher, and the benefits not much different, than the other three low-carbon alternatives. Costs are higher due to cost to build a wind or solar plant, they operate at full capacity only about 15 percent of the time, and output is highly variable. Frank estimates that it takes at least 7.3 solar plants and 4.3 wind plants to produce the same amount of power as one Hydro or nuclear or coal or gas-fired plant. He suggests that renewable incentives that favor wind and solar are very expensive and inefficient way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Last year Northwest Natural presented Vision 2050: Destination Zero, an in-depth report that shows multiple scenarios for how NW Natural can achieve carbon neutrality, a low-carbon energy future in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This report analyzes potential scenarios in which NW Natural could achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 for the energy services they provide to 2.5 million residents.

Emerging new technologies can play a role in decarbonizing non-renewable gas supplies through the direct capture of carbon dioxide at the point of combustion. These emissions can be sequestered or utilized, giving rise to the category of carbon capture, utilization, and storage.

NW Natural has market-ready technology in the pilot phase of deployment designed for natural gas utilities. They are piloting the CarbinX unit, manufactured by the Canadian-based CleanO2 firm, which draws a fraction of the flue gas from natural gas-fired appliances and mixes that gas with potassium hydroxide to produce potassium carbonate. The initial model is expected to capture 20% of the CO2 in the flue stream and eventually rise to 100% in 2030. The CarbinX device is best suited for larger facilities like indoor aquatic and recreation centers or hotels with on-site laundry, places that use relatively stable amounts of natural gas.

NW Natural is also partnering with Modern Electron on another pilot project to turn methane into clean hydrogen and solid carbon to go live in early 2023. All these innovative efforts that actually reduces carbon emissions, unlike HB 2021, have fallen on deaf ears with the Oregon legislature's majority party.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2022-11-22 06:54:19

Last Update: 2022-11-21 22:27:48