If a new pilot project to capture harmful carbons is successful at an East Bay gas-fired power plant, it could be a game-changer in the fight against climate change.

Calpine, one of the nation’s largest energy producers, unveiled its first-ever carbon capture demonstration pilot last week at its Pittsburg Los Medanos Energy Center power plant. The pilot project will test new technology that could capture nearly all of the plant’s carbon emissions, reducing greenhouse emissions – and doing so in a cost-effective way.

The test project’s innovative technology, developed by ION Clean Energy of Colorado, will make reducing greenhouse gas at existing gas-fired power plants more practical and cost-efficient, company officials say. Under the process, carbon dioxide-rich gas moves into an absorption tower where a liquid solvent will bind with it, allowing the gas to be cleaned and released and the carbon piped out for safe storage a half-mile down into the Earth.

“Today is representative of the environmental progress that’s always been a part of our DNA at Calpine,” Calpine CEO Thad Hill told the state leaders and many other guests gathered at the unveiling. “Our goal is to lead. We’ve consistently supported state and federal carbon reduction programs.”

In 2022, the U.S. electric power sector’s carbon dioxide emissions were 1,539 million metric tons, or about 31% of total U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions, according to the Energy Information Administration. Of that total, natural gas-powered plants produced some 662 million metric tons of carbon, or about 43%.

Hill added that his company is focused on being a leading power company to decarbonize and is pursuing projects at a number of sites across the country.

“We have to remove carbon emissions,” he said. “And it’s important that it’s affordable for the families that are actually paying for their electricity.”

Visitors to the Los Medanos Energy Center in Pittsburg on Friday, July 14, 2023, look at the new absorption towers where carbon dioxide is bound with a solvent to begin the process of carbon capture. The Calpine gas-powered plant that produces steam and electricity is now undergoing a test pilot to see if carbon can be captured safely, efficiently and cost-effectively. (Judith Prieve/Staff) 

Pittsburg’s Los Medanos Energy Center was chosen for the pilot because it supplies both steam and power and runs most of the time, providing for optimal testing conditions, according to officials.

“It’s really great for a pilot demonstration, where we want stable operation as much as possible for it to operate as long as possible, whereas a lot of other facilities go up and down and aren’t always operating,” Jennifer Atcheson, vice president, operation of ION Clean Energy said.

Andrew Awtry of ION Clean Energy said that while the carbon capture process has been around for many decades, the results ION expects to see with its newly developed solvent and new technology will be “truly unprecedented.”

“The solvent itself, it’s very stable, so it has a long lifetime,” Awtry said.

The process would capture as much as 95% of the carbon emitted at the 678-megawatt plant, he said. It would capture about 10 tons of carbon dioxide per day for approximately 13 to 18 months under the 1-megawatt test, which will begin soon, company officials said.

The $25 million project is being funded mainly by a Department of Energy-National Energy Technology Laboratory grant while ION and Calpine will share the remaining 20% of the costs.

If the project is successful, many believe the study will help provide valuable information and lead to the decarbonization of existing natural gas power plants across California and the nation.

Hill, meanwhile, called carbon capturing “important for successful energy transition” for the future.

“The deployment of carbon capture on (energy) plants, like the one sitting here — a plant that is reliable, that is safe, that is efficient — will really change the world,” he added.

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The decarbonization process could also help Calpine — and others — achieve the state’s goals of no greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 as well as the Biden-Harris administration’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality — with as much carbon dioxide released as is removed — by 2050, and 100% clean electricity by 2035.

Long an advocate for decarbonization, California State Treasurer Fiona Ma is working closely with the governor’s office in cleaning and greening the environment.

“Today, it is my honor to just stand here and applaud Gov. Gavin Newsom for creating the first zero-emission carbon plan by 2045, with a goal of reducing air pollution by 71% by 2045,” she said at the plant. “And that doesn’t come easily.”

Liane Randolph, chair of the California Air Resources Board, can second that. Her board last December adopted the latest climate change plan, which lays out the economy-wide strategy to reach carbon neutrality by 2045 and to reduce carbon emission levels by 48% below 1990 levels by 2030.

“We know we’re in a climate crisis, we know we are feeling the impacts of climate change right now, and we know we need to take action,” she said.

Randolph called carbon capture and sequester a “critical tool” in fighting climate change, acknowledging that the transition to cleaner energy is “going to take some time.”

“This project can really give us the learnings we need to scale up this work. … Implementation is where it’s at. It’s what needs to happen.”

Secretary Wade Crowfoot, California Natural Resources Agency secretary, called the event a “big milestone” and an “important moment in time.”

“We know that California and Californians are on the frontlines of climate change,” he said, pointing to the state’s weather extremes, from catastrophic fires and drought to the wettest weeks on state record.

“So, increasingly, this is not the planet it was 10 years ago, and that will impact our lives, and probably more importantly, will fundamentally change the lives of our children and grandchildren,” he said.

“So, for all of those reasons, we have to move further and faster to protect Californians, protect Americans from these impacts of climate change, but also … build a brighter future. And we do that by reducing pollution, moving as much as we can beyond fossil fuels, and capturing pollution and carbon that we’re generating right now.”

“This is a big step forward — progress to celebrate with much more work ahead,” Crowfoot added.