COP24 Side Event

Statements of Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg at the COP24 Side Event in Katowice, Poland on December 10, 2018

Thank you.

I want to begin by thanking our moderator for organizing and leading this important roundtable.  And, thank you all for being here today. 

I’d like to take a few minutes to discuss what the U.S. Department of Energy is doing to support the development and use of our fossil energy resources. 

The U.S. is a global leader when it comes to the development of clean energy technologies – technologies that include fossil energy innovations, like transformational clean coal technologies and carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS.  And, with global coal consumption projected to remain steady for the foreseeable future, it is technology innovation that can solve challenges facing the world –challenges that include ending energy poverty, providing low cost energy, and reducing global emissions.

At the U.S. Department of Energy, one of our primary areas of focus is this technology innovation and we are targeting a suite of advanced processes and technologies to improve the efficiency, resiliency, and competitiveness of existing coal-fired power plants.  The goal is to ensure that we have a fleet of plants that provide stable power generation with operational flexibility, higher efficiency, and lower emissions. 

So, turning to coal for a moment – at the U.S. Department of Energy, we’re targeting a suite of advanced processes and technologies to improve the efficiency, resiliency, and competitiveness of existing coal-fired power plants.  The goal is to ensure that we have a fleet of plants that provide stable power generation with operational flexibility, higher efficiency, and lower emissions. 

While we’re working on existing plants, we’re also focused on developing the technologies that will stand up the next generation of smaller, more modular, coal plants.  These future plants will need to be able to compete with other sources of power generation and provide stability and resiliency to an evolving electric grid that is incorporating more intermittent renewables. We’re exploring the possible pathways to get there, but broadly, these plants will need to be:

• More modular — in the range of 50 to 350 MW;
• Highly efficient — north of 40 percent;
• Near-zero emissions; and
• Nimble and flexible — to meet the demands of an evolving grid.

These plants have great potential for high efficiency, low emission resilient power generation in the U.S.  But they also offer opportunities for developing countries to use tomorrow’s coal technology to improve their energy security and – in many cases – to expand energy access to those who live without electricity and to use their indigenous fuels, including coal, biomass and natural gas.

So, we’re rolling out this effort this year.  Last month, we requested proposals for conceptual designs for various plant configurations that have the potential to meet these requirements.  And we plan to soon issue R&D funding announcements for early-stage critical components and manufacturing approaches needed to make these plants as efficient, flexible, and economic as possible when they are ultimately adopted by industry.

In the meantime, the United States continues to be a global leader in the effort to develop and commercially deploy carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies.  In addition to three large-scale commercial CCUS projects we have in place, we have been appropriated around $400 million in funding over the first two years of the Trump Administration for CCUS R&D – including approximately $200 million for carbon capture R&D that is focused on both Pre-Combustion Capture and Post-Combustion Capture technologies.

So, our commitment to CCUS remains strong.  We’re actively collaborating with international partners through initiatives that include the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, Mission Innovation, the IEA, and the Clean Energy Ministerial – where we’re partnering with Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and the UK to push for the global commercialization of CCUS.  And, I expect that we will be more involved than ever to develop and broadly deploy these critical technologies. 

Now, when it comes to oil and gas, the shale revolution has propelled the U.S. to become the world’s leading producer of both crude oil and natural gas.  And, that development is having transformational impacts – particularly in the global natural gas markets and in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.  To date, the Department of Energy has approved over 210 billion cubic meters per year (bcm/a) of potential export capacity for export to any country in the world not prohibited by U.S. law or policy, with another 230 bcm/a of additional export capacity expected to complete federal regulatory review in the next year. 

Since the U.S. began exporting LNG from the lower-48 states in 2016, U.S. LNG has reached over 30 destinations around the world, including Poland.   And during Secretary Perry’s visit here last month, the Polish Oil and Gas Company and Cheniere Energy signed an historic 24-year agreement for supplies of LNG from the United States to be shipped to Poland.  This follows a contract between Venture Global and the Polish Oil and Gas Company for U.S. LNG that was signed earlier this fall, and an agreement between Sempra and Polish Oil and Gas in June.

So, U.S. LNG is having a global reach.

And, with approximately 40 bcm/a of export capacity currently operating and up to 110 bcm/a of export capacity expected to be online in the next two years, we have abundant natural gas resources and export infrastructure that promise to make the U.S. a leading global natural gas supplier. 

So, fossil energy development remains critical to global energy security.  The United States has these resources in abundance, and the U.S. government remains committed to leading the innovation and development of transformational technologies that will ensure that those resources can be used more efficiently and sustainably – and more widely, for our benefit, and for the benefit of the world. 

 I look forward to a good discussion today.  Thank you.