IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v39y2011i5p2256-2264.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Carbon capture and storage as a corporate technology strategy challenge

Author

Listed:
  • Bowen, Frances

Abstract

Latest estimates suggest that widespread deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) could account for up to one-fifth of the needed global reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. Governments are attempting to stimulate investments in CCS technology both directly through subsidizing demonstration projects, and indirectly through developing price incentives in carbon markets. Yet, corporate decision-makers are finding CCS investments challenging. Common explanations for delay in corporate CCS investments include operational concerns such as the high cost of capture technologies, technological uncertainties in integrated CCS systems and underdeveloped regulatory and liability regimes. In this paper, we place corporate CCS adoption decisions within a technology strategy perspective. We diagnose four underlying characteristics of the strategic CCS technology adoption decision that present unusual challenges for decision-makers: such investments are precautionary, sustaining, cumulative and situated. Understanding CCS as a corporate technology strategy challenge can help us move beyond the usual list of operational barriers to CCS and make public policy recommendations to help overcome them.

Suggested Citation

  • Bowen, Frances, 2011. "Carbon capture and storage as a corporate technology strategy challenge," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2256-2264, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:5:p:2256-2264
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(11)00026-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de Coninck, Heleen & Fischer, Carolyn & Newell, Richard G. & Ueno, Takahiro, 2008. "International technology-oriented agreements to address climate change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 335-356, January.
    2. James G. March, 1991. "Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 71-87, February.
    3. Jim Dewald & Frances Bowen, 2010. "Storm Clouds and Silver Linings: Responding to Disruptive Innovations Through Cognitive Resilience," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(1), pages 197-218, January.
    4. Shackley, Simon & Verma, Preeti, 2008. "Tackling CO2 reduction in India through use of CO2 capture and storage (CCS): Prospects and challenges," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 3554-3561, September.
    5. Ockwell, David G. & Watson, Jim & MacKerron, Gordon & Pal, Prosanto & Yamin, Farhana, 2008. "Key policy considerations for facilitating low carbon technology transfer to developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4104-4115, November.
    6. Richard Van Noorden, 2010. "Carbon sequestration: Buried trouble," Nature, Nature, vol. 463(7283), pages 871-873, February.
    7. Praetorius, Barbara & Schumacher, Katja, 2009. "Greenhouse gas mitigation in a carbon constrained world: The role of carbon capture and storage," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5081-5093, December.
    8. Magali Delmas & Michael V. Russo & Maria J. Montes‐Sancho, 2007. "Deregulation and environmental differentiation in the electric utility industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 189-209, February.
    9. Hansson, Anders & Bryngelsson, Mårten, 2009. "Expert opinions on carbon dioxide capture and storage--A framing of uncertainties and possibilities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2273-2282, June.
    10. Bergerson, Joule & Lave, Lester, 2007. "The long-term life cycle private and external costs of high coal usage in the US," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6225-6234, December.
    11. Chang, Youngho & Yong, Jiayun, 2007. "Differing perspectives of major oil firms on future energy developments: An illustrative framework," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5466-5480, November.
    12. Unruh, Gregory C., 2000. "Understanding carbon lock-in," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 817-830, October.
    13. Dapeng, Liang & Weiwei, Wu, 2009. "Barriers and incentives of CCS deployment in China: Results from semi-structured interviews," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2421-2432, June.
    14. Levy, David L. & Kolk, Ans, 2002. "Strategic Responses to Global Climate Change: Conflicting Pressures on Multinationals in the Oil Industry," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(3), pages 275-300, November.
    15. de Coninck, Heleen & Stephens, Jennie C. & Metz, Bert, 2009. "Global learning on carbon capture and storage: A call for strong international cooperation on CCS demonstration," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2161-2165, June.
    16. Nemet, Gregory F. & Kammen, Daniel M., 2007. "U.S. energy research and development: Declining investment, increasing need, and the feasibility of expansion," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 746-755, January.
    17. Dosi, Giovanni, 1993. "Technological paradigms and technological trajectories : A suggested interpretation of the determinants and directions of technical change," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 102-103, April.
    18. Huijts, Nicole M.A. & Midden, Cees J.H. & Meijnders, Anneloes L., 2007. "Social acceptance of carbon dioxide storage," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2780-2789, May.
    19. Stephens, Jennie C. & Jiusto, Scott, 2010. "Assessing innovation in emerging energy technologies: Socio-technical dynamics of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) in the USA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 2020-2031, April.
    20. Levy David L. & Kolk Ans, 2002. "Strategic Responses to Global Climate Change: Conflicting Pressures on Multinationals in the Oil Industry," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 4(3), pages 1-27, November.
    21. Fuss, Sabine & Johansson, Daniel J.A. & Szolgayova, Jana & Obersteiner, Michael, 2009. "Impact of climate policy uncertainty on the adoption of electricity generating technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 733-743, February.
    22. de Coninck, Heleen, 2008. "Trojan horse or horn of plenty? Reflections on allowing CCS in the CDM," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 929-936, March.
    23. Shackley, Simon & Waterman, Holly & Godfroij, Per & Reiner, David & Anderson, Jason & Draxlbauer, Kathy & Flach, Todd, 2007. "Stakeholder perceptions of CO2 capture and storage in Europe: Results from a survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 5091-5108, October.
    24. Chen, Chao & Rubin, Edward S., 2009. "CO2 control technology effects on IGCC plant performance and cost," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 915-924, March.
    25. Rubin, Edward S. & Chen, Chao & Rao, Anand B., 2007. "Cost and performance of fossil fuel power plants with CO2 capture and storage," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 4444-4454, September.
    26. -, 2009. "The economics of climate change," Sede Subregional de la CEPAL para el Caribe (Estudios e Investigaciones) 38679, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    27. Thomas Karier, 1995. "Technology," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(4), pages 60-63, July.
    28. Chen, Wenying & Xu, Ruina, 2010. "Clean coal technology development in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2123-2130, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peter Viebahn & Emile J. L. Chappin, 2018. "Scrutinising the Gap between the Expected and Actual Deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage—A Bibliometric Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-45, September.
    2. Bobo Zheng & Jiuping Xu, 2014. "Carbon Capture and Storage Development Trends from a Techno-Paradigm Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-30, August.
    3. Brown, Marilyn A. & Tudawe, Ranal & Steimer, Hamilton, 2022. "Carbon drawdown potential of utility-scale solar in the United States: Evidence from the state of Georgia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    4. Xi Liang & Hengwei Liu & David Reiner, 2014. "Strategies for Financing Large-scale Carbon Capture and Storage Power Plants in China," Working Papers EPRG 1410, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    5. Jingjing Xie & Yujiao Xian & Guowei Jia, 2023. "An investigation into the public acceptance in China of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 28(5), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Valentina Kashintseva & Wadim Strielkowski & Justas Streimikis & Tatiana Veynbender, 2018. "Consumer Attitudes towards Industrial CO 2 Capture and Storage Products and Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, October.
    7. Ming, Zeng & Shaojie, Ouyang & Yingjie, Zhang & Hui, Shi, 2014. "CCS technology development in China: Status, problems and countermeasures—Based on SWOT analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 604-616.
    8. van Os, Herman W.A. & Herber, Rien & Scholtens, Bert, 2014. "Not Under Our Back Yards? A case study of social acceptance of the Northern Netherlands CCS initiative," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 923-942.
    9. Tobias Hahn & Jonatan Pinkse, 2014. "Private environmental governance through cross-sector partnerships: Tensions between competition and effectiveness," Working Papers hal-00961234, HAL.
    10. Rosemary Ostfeld & David M Reiner, 2019. "Exploring public support for climate action and renewables in resource-rich economies: The case of Scotland," Working Papers EPRG1934, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    11. Tao, Hu & Zhuang, Shan & Xue, Rui & Cao, Wei & Tian, Jinfang & Shan, Yuli, 2022. "Environmental Finance: An Interdisciplinary Review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    12. McMeekin, Andrew & Geels, Frank W. & Hodson, Mike, 2019. "Mapping the winds of whole system reconfiguration: Analysing low-carbon transformations across production, distribution and consumption in the UK electricity system (1990–2016)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1216-1231.
    13. Zhao, Tian & Liu, Zhixin, 2019. "A novel analysis of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology adoption: An evolutionary game model between stakeholders," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    14. Moura, Maria Cecilia P. & Branco, David A. Castelo & Peters, Glen P. & Szklo, Alexandre Salem & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2013. "How the choice of multi-gas equivalency metrics affects mitigation options: The case of CO2 capture in a Brazilian coal-fired power plant," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1357-1366.
    15. Ostfeld, Rosemary & Reiner, David M., 2020. "Public views of Scotland's path to decarbonization: Evidence from citizens' juries and focus groups," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    16. Marshall, Jonathan Paul, 2016. "Disordering fantasies of coal and technology: Carbon capture and storage in Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 288-298.
    17. Davies, Lincoln L. & Uchitel, Kirsten & Ruple, John, 2013. "Understanding barriers to commercial-scale carbon capture and sequestration in the United States: An empirical assessment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 745-761.
    18. Shuai Nie & Guotian Cai & Yixuan Li & Yushu Chen & Ruxue Bai & Liping Gao & Xiaoyu Chen, 2022. "To Adopt CCU Technology or Not? An Evolutionary Game between Local Governments and Coal-Fired Power Plants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-18, April.
    19. Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi & Mohammad Dehghani Madvar & Milad Sadeghzadeh & Mohammad Hossein Rezaei & Manuel Herrera & Shahaboddin Shamshirband, 2019. "Current Status Investigation and Predicting Carbon Dioxide Emission in Latin American Countries by Connectionist Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-20, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Setiawan, Andri D. & Cuppen, Eefje, 2013. "Stakeholder perspectives on carbon capture and storage in Indonesia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1188-1199.
    2. Evar, Benjamin, 2011. "Conditional inevitability: Expert perceptions of carbon capture and storage uncertainties in the UK context," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3414-3424, June.
    3. Hansson, Anders & Bryngelsson, Mårten, 2009. "Expert opinions on carbon dioxide capture and storage--A framing of uncertainties and possibilities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2273-2282, June.
    4. Xie, Zongjie & Hall, Jeremy & McCarthy, Ian P. & Skitmore, Martin & Shen, Liyin, 2016. "Standardization efforts: The relationship between knowledge dimensions, search processes and innovation outcomes," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 48, pages 69-78.
    5. Giacomo Marangoni & Massimo Tavoni, 2014. "The Clean Energy R&D Strategy For 2°C," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(01), pages 1-23.
    6. Pinkse, Jonatan & van den Buuse, Daniel, 2012. "The development and commercialization of solar PV technology in the oil industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 11-20.
    7. Foxon, Timothy J., 2011. "A coevolutionary framework for analysing a transition to a sustainable low carbon economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 2258-2267.
    8. Johannes Urpelainen, 2012. "Technology investment, bargaining, and international environmental agreements," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 145-163, May.
    9. Jin, Wei & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2014. "Explaining the Slow Pace of Energy Technological Innovation Why Market Conditions Matter?," Energy: Resources and Markets 165758, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    10. Hoppmann, Joern & Peters, Michael & Schneider, Malte & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2013. "The two faces of market support—How deployment policies affect technological exploration and exploitation in the solar photovoltaic industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 989-1003.
    11. Chicco, Gianfranco & Stephenson, Paule M., 2012. "Effectiveness of setting cumulative carbon dioxide emissions reduction targets," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 19-31.
    12. Downie, Christian, 2017. "Business actors, political resistance, and strategies for policymakers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 583-592.
    13. Samuli Patala & Jouni K. Juntunen & Sarianna Lundan & Tiina Ritvala, 2021. "Multinational energy utilities in the energy transition: A configurational study of the drivers of FDI in renewables," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(5), pages 930-950, July.
    14. Hong-Hua Qiu & Jing Yang, 2018. "An Assessment of Technological Innovation Capabilities of Carbon Capture and Storage Technology Based on Patent Analysis: A Comparative Study between China and the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-20, March.
    15. Natalie Slawinski & Jonatan Pinkse & Timo Busch & Subhabrata Bobby Banerjeed, 2014. "The role of short-termism and uncertainty in organizational inaction on climate change: multilevel framework," Working Papers hal-00961226, HAL.
    16. Mäkitie, Tuukka & Normann, Håkon E. & Thune, Taran M. & Sraml Gonzalez, Jakoba, 2019. "The green flings: Norwegian oil and gas industry’s engagement in offshore wind power," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 269-279.
    17. Kemp-Benedict, Eric, 2014. "Shifting to a Green Economy: Lock-in, Path Dependence, and Policy Options," MPRA Paper 60175, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Stephens, Jennie C. & Jiusto, Scott, 2010. "Assessing innovation in emerging energy technologies: Socio-technical dynamics of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) in the USA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 2020-2031, April.
    19. Popp, David & Newell, Richard, 2012. "Where does energy R&D come from? Examining crowding out from energy R&D," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 980-991.
    20. Hoang Anh Nguyen Trinh & Minh Ha-Duong, 2015. "Perspective of CO2 capture & storage (CCS) development in Vietnam: Results from expert interviews," Post-Print hal-01137656, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:5:p:2256-2264. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.