In what is thought to be a first-of-its-kind move in the energy sector, Calpine's (NYSE:CPN) CEO Peter Cartwright announced it will address global warming by voluntarily limiting the company's investments to only low carbon power generation.
Calpine's Board of Directors unanimously backed the decision. Calpine is the world's largest producer of geothermal power and operates the largest, fleet of natural gas-fired power plants in North America. Based in San Jose, Calif., the company is among the nation's largest electricity generators, capable of producing enough energy to power more than 23 million homes.
"It may be decades before we will know with complete certainty the full ramifications of global warming, but we do know that the risk is significant," said Cartwright. "But by the time we do have total certainty, it may be too late to take remedial action. Our Board of Directors' decision merges a sound business strategy with essential national and global environmental goals."
The Board resolved to minimize and limit carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from its current and future power plants. To achieve this, Calpine will work to improve its fuel efficiency and will only invest in new baseload power plants with an output-based CO2 emissions rate (pounds/megawatt-hour) that is no higher than the output-based emissions rate from a modern, combined-cycle, natural-gas fired plant.
While the average fossil fuel plant in the United States releases about 1,900 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour, all future baseload Calpine plants will emit about 850 lbs/mwhr of CO2.
Currently, power plants account for more than 40% of the nation's CO2 emissions.
Loading...