Low-carbon electricity

This article is about electricity generation that aims to minimise greenhouse gas emissions. For broader concepts, see sustainable energy.

Share of primary energy from low-carbon sources, 2018
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Low-carbon electricity or low-carbon power is electricity produced with substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions over the entire lifecycle than power generation using fossil fuels.[citation needed] The energy transition to low-carbon power is one of the most important actions required to limit climate change.[1]

Low carbon power generation sources include wind power, solar power, nuclear power and most hydropower.[2][3] The term largely excludes conventional fossil fuel plant sources, and is only used to describe a particular subset of operating fossil fuel power systems, specifically, those that are successfully coupled with a flue gas carbon capture and storage (CCS) system.[4] Globally almost 40% of electricity generation came from low-carbon sources in 2020: about 10% being nuclear power, almost 10% wind and solar, and around 20% hydropower and other renewables.[1] Very little low-carbon power comes from fossil sources, mostly due to the cost of CCS technology.[5]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Warner, Ethan S. (2012). "Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Nuclear Electricity Generation". Journal of Industrial Ecology. 16: S73–S92. doi:10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00472.x. S2CID 153286497.
  3. ^ "The European Strategic Energy Technology Plan SET-Plan Towards a low-carbon future" (PDF). 2010. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 February 2014. ... nuclear plants ... currently provide 1/3 of the EU's electricity and 2/3 of its low-carbon energy.
  4. ^ "Innovation funding opportunities for low-carbon technologies: 2010 to 2015". GOV.UK. 13 September 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  5. ^ Zhang, Yuting; Jackson, Christopher; Krevor, Samuel (28 August 2024). "The feasibility of reaching gigatonne scale CO2 storage by mid-century". Nature Communications. 15 (1): 6913. doi:10.1038/s41467-024-51226-8. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 11358273. PMID 39198390. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License