The Eight Technologies Listed Here Have the Best Chance of Preserving Earth




 
 

3. CARBON CAPTURE

That’s the premise of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), an emerging class of technologies that are primed to play an important role in the health of our planet in the decades ahead. According to the CCS Association, capture technologies allow the separation of carbon dioxide from gases produced in electricity generation and industrial processes by one of three methods: pre-combustion capture, post-combustion capture, and oxyfuel com­bustion. The carbon is transported by pipeline and stored in rock formations far below ground.

 

4. SMART GRIDS

The way our power infrastructure — collectively known as the grid — works now is a troubling holdover from the 19th and 20th centuries. Power production is still largely centralized and distributed downstream, eventually reaching end users. The problem is that these grids are highly sensitive to fluctuations in usage and output. To make them work reliably, they demand an overproduction of energy. They’re prone to attack, and they tend to rely on pollution-emitting energy sources.