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"Shell, on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, a joint venture among Shell Canada (60 per cent), Chevron Canada Limited (20 per cent) and Marathon Oil Sands L.P. (20 per cent) has proposed a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The Quest CCS Project would be based at Shell's Scotford Upgrader, located near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. Commissioned in 2003, the Upgrader turns bitumen from the Athabasca oil sands into synthetic crude oil, most of which is turned into consumer products such as gasoline."

Although interesting - and certainly backing carbon capture and storage (CCS), the article failed to discuss the negative points of the technology - instead relying on climate change numbers and fuel usage to back the argument.

Two strong potential candidates for the Next Big Thing in cleantech venture capital are nuclear and carbon capture and storage. I've spoken with numerous VCs recently who are looking for innovative ways to play in nuclear power. Bets have already been made by VCs in small-scale nukes, hot fusion, and technologies related to big-scale nukes. The hope is to find a low-cost solution that is practically zero carbon emissions and also provides reliable "base load" power. So in other words, the hope is for a lower-carbon replacement for coal power. The challenges are also significant, however, not least of which being time to market for any new innovations, as this interesting article illustrates. With the recent news that the DOE will be putting $2.4B into carbon capture and storage, and its inclusion in emerging climate legislation, it's also clear that CCS will be leaned upon as a hoped-for way of making our existing coal-fired generation infrastructure less impactful on the atmosphere, while still preserving its value as low-cost baseload power. So in other words, the hope is for a lower-carbon "fix" for coal power.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) are possible, but the cost of doing so - both early on and even as the technology matures - is likely to be staggering, according to a study from Harvard University's Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs.

Siemens started working with Norwegian utility Statkraft earlier this year to develop a CO2 capture technology that suit the conditions and mode of operation of combined cycle plants.

Industrial greenhouse gases prevented from entering the atmosphere through the use of so-called carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology are to be credited as not emitted under the EU emissions trading scheme, according to Commission plans to be put forward next year.