'Clean' coal won't be viable until 2030, says energy analysis

New Delhi: Despite making efforts toward renewable energy, 'clean' coal technologies won't be commercially viable until at least 2030, says an Australian report.

In a new report released on Thursday, the Australian energy research firm RepuTex said the idea of clean coal was fundamentally out of sync with the move towards more flexible energy sources, Xinhua news agency reported.

RepuTex argued that the rising price and the falling cost of energy storage made renewable energy the cheapest source of reliable power in Australia.

In its submission to the Finkel Review, an independent review into the future of Australia's electricity market, RepuTex said technologies such as carbon capture and storage would not reach maturity until 2030 at best, making clean coal impossible.

"Outside of the generation sector, the effort to reduce emissions could therefore be spread across the economy," it said.

RepuTex was joined by a number of Australian energy heavy hitters in calling for a market signal to be implemented to allow for the orderly retirement of coal-fired generators.

Alan Finkel, the leader of the review, gave support for an emissions intensity scheme in his preliminary report.

Finkel said the scheme would best integrate "with the electricity market's pricing and risk management framework" and "had the lowest economic costs and the lowest impact on electricity prices."

With the country struggling to meet its 2030 target under the Paris agreement, the firm noted that energy was not the only source of emissions reduction potential in Australia.

(With IANS inputs)