ASFE Winberg Attends Global CCUS Conference in Scotland

Today, Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy (ASFE) Steven Winberg attended a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he participated in a panel focused on business models and partnership opportunities between government and the private sector to advance carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS).

CCUS involves a suite of technologies designed to capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) from fossil-fuel powered power plants and industrial processes.  The captured CO₂ can then be safely and permanently stored underground, used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), or converted into value-added products.

During the panel discussions at the Accelerating CCUS Global Conference, ASFE Winberg highlighted what the United States is doing to help commercialize CCUS.  He emphasized the critical role the private sector has played in that work, and he stressed the importance of international collaboration in progressing CCUS deployment.

“Just as domestic public-private collaboration is critical to CCUS commercialization, so too are international partnerships—like the partnerships represented here,” said ASFE Winberg.  “In addition to driving down costs through R&D, as a global CCUS community we also need to rapidly drive down project costs through learning-by-doing, which is exactly why we need to find ways to come together in public-private partnerships to get this done.” 

The Department of Energy has a robust CCUS research and development program, which has supported three major CCUS demonstration projects currently operating in the U.S.  In addition to efforts to develop and commercialize CCUS in the U.S., the Department collaborates with international partners to develop and deploy CCUS technologies globally.

Organized by the United Kingdom Government and the Global CCS Institute, the Accelerating CCUS Global Conference convened leading international experts to discuss pathways to accelerate the deployment of CCUS around the world.