Description and assessment of mitigation technologies and practices, options, potentials and costs in the electricity generation sector

The electricity sector has a significant mitigation potential using a range of technologies (Table TS.3). The economic potential for mitigation of each individual technology is based on what might be a realistic deployment expectation of the various technologies using all efforts, but given practical constraints on rate of uptake, public acceptance, capacity building and commercialization. Competition between options and the influence of end-use energy conservation and efficiency improvement is not included [4.4].

A wide range of energy-supply mitigation options are available and cost effective at carbon prices of <20US$/tCO₂ including fuel switching and power-plant efficiency improvements, nuclear power and renewable energy systems. CCS will become cost effective at higher carbon prices. Other options still under development include advanced nuclear power, advanced renewables, second-generation biofuels and, in the longer term, the possible use of hydrogen as an energy carrier (high agreement, much evidence) [4.3, 4.4].

Since the estimates in Table TS.3 are for the mitigation potentials of individual options without considering the actual supply mix, they cannot be added. An additional analysis of the supply mix to avoid double counting was therefore carried out. For this analysis, it was assumed that the capacity of thermal electricity generation capacity would be substituted gradually and new power plants would be built to comply with demand, under the following conditions:

The resulting economic mitigation potential for the energy-supply sector by 2030 from improved thermal power-plant efficiency, fuel switching and the implementation of more nuclear, renewables, fuel switching and CCS to meet growing demand is around 7.2 GtCO₂-eq at carbon prices <100 US$/tCO₂-eq. At costs <20 US$/tCO₂-eq the reduction potential is estimated at 3.9 GtCO₂-eq (Table TS.4). At this carbon price level, the share of renewable energy in electricity generation would increase from 20% in 2010 to about 30% in 2030. At carbon prices <50 US$/tCO₂-eq, the share would increase to 35% of total electricity generation. The share of nuclear energy would be about 18% in 2030 at carbon prices <50 US$/tCO₂-eq, and would not change much at higher prices as other technologies would be competitive.

For assessment of the economic potential, maximum technical shares for the employment of low- or zero-carbon technologies were assumed and the estimate is therefore at the high end of the wide range found in the literature. If, for instance, only 70% of the assumed shares is reached, the mitigation potential at carbon prices <100 US$/tCO₂-eq would be almost halved. Potential savings in electricity demand in end-use sectors reduce the need for mitigation measures in the power sector. When the impact of mitigation measures in the building and industry sectors on electricity demand (outlined in Chapter 11) is taken into account, a lower mitigation potential for the energy-supply sector results than the stand-alone figure reported here (medium agreement, limited evidence) [4.4].