Jim Spiers
Senior Vice President Business Strategy/CTO
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Tri-State Generation and
Transmission Association
 Consumer-owned, notfor-profit wholesale
power supplier owned
by 44 electric co-ops
and public power
districts
 Through its members,
serves approximately
1.5 million people
across 200,000 square
miles
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Fundamentally, utilities manage
risk for their consumers
 The utility industry
excels at aggregating
and managing the risks
of providing power
 Operational
 Market
 Financial
 Regulatory
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Fundamentally, utilities manage
risk for their consumers
 Carbon management is
a unique risk
 Policies are evolving
 Technologies are
evolving
 Carbon affects all
aspects of utility other
industries
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Fuel switching?
 Introduces new risks
 Operational
 Market
 Financial
 Abandonment of
significant capital
investment
 Modern production
fleet w/ advanced
emissions controls
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Carbon capture and
sequestration
 Technology incrementally
advancing
 Enhanced oil recovery a
demonstrated option
 However, significant
economic and regulatory
uncertainty
Is it wise for us
to place only one bet?
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Technology options help
manage risk
 Current carbon management technologies
are being incrementally advanced
 Challenges require radical advancement
on new technology
How Do We Foster Innovation?
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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To go beyond incremental
advancement, think of
carbon as an asset
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Why not use carbon?
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Research indicates potential
136 (and counting)
Carbon Recycling
Entities
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
>90 Emerging
Carbon Capture
Approaches
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Carbon capture innovation:
Six different categories
 Solvents
 Enzyme Based Systems
 Physical Sorbents
 Precipitated Calcium
Carbonate Ionic Liquids
 Gas Separation
Membranes
 Metal Organic Frameworks
(MOFs)
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Carbon utilization innovation:
Three major categories
 Biological
 A biological organism rapidly absorbs
CO2 to produce a product
 Chemical/catalytic
 A catalyst breaks the carbon-oxygen
bond, then combines the carbon with
other elements to produce a product
 Mineralization
 CO2 is locked into solid structures that
can then be incorporated into products
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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There is great potential to advance
carbon capture and utilization, but…
 These technologies are nascent!
 Small scale / laboratory
 Expensive
 Unproven
How Do We Spur Their
Commercialization?
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Commercializing the
CO2 asset industry
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Problem statement:
Need real world technologies
 Laboratory conditions don’t mimic the real
world operating environment
 Innovators find it difficult to test their
technologies in the real world because of
utilities’ “stack risk”
Laboratories
don’t reflect the
real world
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
“Stack risk”
prevents real
world
deployments
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Research indicates unmet need
Multiple
“Integrated”
Platforms
Single
Platform
Single
Technology
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
Multiple
Technologies
Tri-State’s
syndicated
research on test
centers shows a
need and value for
energy test facilities
that support
multiple
technologies on
multiple integrated
platforms
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Creating real world technology
 One location facilitates testing at various
scales
 Accelerate technologies into the real
world
 Advance the future needs of the
electric industry
 Mitigate selection risk by providing
research and testing platforms in
numerous areas
 An end-to-end carbon utilization
center is the cornerstone.
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Leveraging precedent-NCCC
 The U.S. governmentfunded National
Carbon Capture
Center (NCCC) is a
proven technology
accelerator
 Focused mostly on
conventional carbon
capture
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
Progress at the
NCCC will be
leveraged by the
new test center
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Leveraging precedent-PC4
 The Post-Combustion
Carbon Capture Center
(PC4) within the NCCC
 Provides access to coal-
combustion flue gas streams
for testing of post-combustion
carbon capture technologies
 CO2 capture at NCCC
complemented by the new
test center’s utilization
approaches
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
The PC4 tests
carbon capture
technologies within
the NCCC
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Integrated Energy Test Center
____________________
GENERATION STATION
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Technology commercialization
platform: >20 Institutions
University of Wyoming
Wyoming Community Colleges
Potential Role?
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Igniting the industry
“Once talent has
been identified, it has
to be focused in the
desired direction and
ignited…”
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Prizes can spark an industry
2010
1992
1791
Progressive
Automotive X PRIZE
Chemical Engineering
Prize
French Academy
The Golden
Carrot Prize
1714
2004
1927
The Longitude Act
of 1714
The Orteig Prize
(Charles Lindbergh)
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
The Ansari X PRIZE
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XPRIZE Takes Prizes Further
 26 Teams from 7 Nations
Spent >$100 million to win
 Launched a new, personal
spaceflight industry
 Drove regulatory reform
 Received >12 billion media
impressions worth >$200
million
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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XPRIZEs create leverage
 Highly leveraged: Typically 10 –
40x
 Efficient: Only pays the winner
 Can spark new industry and
market development
$1B+
Industry start
$100M
Teams’ spend
$10M - Purse
$2.5M – Start-up
Ansari Family
St. Louis
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Under development:
The Carbon XPRIZE
 Could be first “tenant”
of the new test center
 $10 million prize,
advanced market
commitment & benefits
 Turn CO2 from a
liability to an asset
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Tri-State has made significant
effort to advance carbon utilization
 2010: Seeded multiple development
efforts, including syndicated research
 2011: Sponsored formal prize development
process and IP creation
 2012: Sponsored coalition building and
stakeholder outreach efforts
 2013: Tri-State and Canadian energy
interests jointly pursuing initiative
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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In conclusion
 Focus on radical technology
advancement in capture and
utilization
 Spur early stage technologies
 Inspire innovators and spark new
industries through inducement prize
 Create options for industry to
manage carbon risk at utility scale
 Demonstrate and scale up
emerging technologies at
integrated test center
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Cornerstone:
CO2 Utilization Center
 Unconventional carbon capture +
beneficial utilization technologies
 Breakthrough the current capital and
parasitic load burdens
The World’s First End-to-End
Carbon Solution Accelerator
Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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Carbon initiative – January 23, 2014
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