Net Zero, Process Safety and the Need for Resilience

Many methods and types of facilities have been proposed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The choice of technology is usually determined by government organizations, rather than corporations. Scientific comparison of alternatives would ideally be done by cost-benefit analysis, taking into account who would pay the costs and who would receive the benefits. But there are problems with cost-benefit analysis in this situation. Government projects have a history of overrun budgets; making cost difficult to estimate. It is impossible to agree on the economic value of benefits (disaster avoidance) for events such as the disappearance of endangered species.

Benefit ranking is more useful comparison in this situation. Because there are not enough resources nor enough time to implement all carbon reduction technologies, ranking is necessary to accomplish the most benefit over time, especially because the benefits are cumulative. The ranked benefits can be evaluated using the sciences of chemistry, physics, thermodynamics, and statistical reliability, adjusted for the real-world effects of natural phenomena and human behavior.

The benefit of electrical storage batteries is compared for two design applications. The first is storage batteries close-coupled with solar power generation facilities, to extend the facility production to cover the peak electrical demand in the evening. The second application is batteries to power vehicles that will be recharged from the electrical grid. Battery effectiveness is measured as avoided carbon emissions per kilowatt of battery capacity. These particular applications of batteries were chosen because there is ample evidence of a world-wide shortage of the materials needed to produce efficient rechargeable batteries, and. because there are published data on hourly solar potential and peak demand.

The results showed that for the two locations studied, the pairing of batteries with solar power facilities is orders-of-magnitude more effective at avoiding carbon-dioxide emissions than using the equivalent battery capacity in electric vehicles. This is true regardless of the electrical energy sources available, and is insensitive to uncertainties in future battery technology.