Unreal Objects by Kate O'Riordan

Author:Kate O'Riordan [O'Riordan, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General
ISBN: 9780745336749
Google: 8UvxjgEACAAJ
Publisher: Pluto Press
Published: 2017-01-15T04:27:44+00:00

OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND

Carbon capture and carbon credits are elements of the smart grid energy imaginary played out in policy and energy businesses in the UK and globally. The same key actors promoting smart grids are also promoting and investing in carbon capture technologies. Carbon capture promises something like business as usual in that we can continue to generate CO2 emissions at the same rate, but ameliorate climate change by capturing and storing the gases somewhere outside of the climate.

One example is the proposal to bury emitted gas under the floor of the North Sea (DECC 2012). The idea is that the chambers created by the extraction of fossil fuels become the spaces of storage for carbon gas. This echoes the handling of nuclear waste in its out of sight, out of mind mode. Another proposal is to turn gas into stone, and experiments with solidifying gases in this way have been carried out in Iceland (Matter et al. 2016). In this process the gases are dissolved in water which is then pumped through basalt rock, creating a mineralization of the carbon similar to limestone formations. This is a beautifully gothic imaginary of transfixing the monster in stone, and has multiple references including the monsters turning into stone with the appearance of daylight.

Carbon capture is one of the many proposals on the table for meeting targets to reduce carbon emissions in order to address climate change. Carbon capture refers to a very general idea but also to specific plans, and in the UK context such projects have so far failed. A recent plan was for the Drax energy company to capture the carbon emitted from the power station of the same name in North Yorkshire and put it into the empty reservoirs created by drilling in the North Sea. However, Drax pulled out in autumn 2015 after allegations that the UK government was failing to support the development of carbon capture in economic terms. The now defunct DECC continued to promise that carbon capture was part of its strategy.

These examples all demand technical innovation in relation to energy production, storage and dissemination. They are also political ideas and would require innovations in politics, economics, consumption and communication in order to succeed. However, the focus on those aspects framed as technical take centre stage in energy policy, even though the political questions about how to work collectively on these issues are more pressing.

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