Sign in
Indonesia will now permit its carbon capture and storage (CCS) operators to set aside 30% of their storage capacity for carbon from overseas, Reuters reports. The new regulation also allows oil and gas companies to use depleted reservoirs or aquifers in their blocks for CCS operations. The stored CO2 can originate from various sources, including oil and gas activities, refineries, power plants, and industrial processes, both within Indonesia and abroad.
There are some limitations: Indonesia will receive carbon only from companies that have invested in the country or from firms that are affiliated with such companies and the incoming carbon will be subject to royalties collected by the government, the newswire writes. In addition, the country from which the carbon originates must have a bilateral agreement with Indonesia.
US-based renewables developer NextEra Energy plans to sign supply agreements up to 3 GW to capitalize on the “explosive growth” of data center development in the US, Bloomberg reports, citing comments made by NextEra CEO Rebecca Kujawa on an earnings call last week.
Why does this matter? Data centers — facilities composed of networked computers, computing infrastructure, and storage systems — are energy guzzlers, using up some 200 TWh of energy annually. The sector generated some 300 metric tons of CO2equivalent globally in 2020, according to International Energy Agency research.
China is looking to become a green data hub: In 2022, the use of energy-efficient green computing data centers mitigated some 16 mn tons of CO2 equivalent in the country and saved c. 19.5 GW of energy. Last year, China began drafting a framework for establishing clean energy data centers in the Chinese city of Hohhot, noting it holds 57% of the country’s wind energy sources and 21% of its solar capacity.
