By Femi Akinola
Solar Geoengineering technology have been detected by Scientists as a more faster way to slowing climate change or reverse the effect of greenhouse emissions beyond switching to low-carbon energy sources like solar and wind, Scientists declared.
According to Scientists, global temperatures are currently increasing at a faster clip that at any time in the last centuries fuelling record-breaking heat waves, wildfires and droughts, and has also intensified weather patterns.
Heavy emissions of Co2 and other potent greenhouse gasses such as methane, Scientists declared, are responsible for the pronounced greenhouse effect such as increase in the amount of sunlight that the earth absorbs is afflicting the earth planet.
To counter this, several methods, particularly solar geoengineering, was proposed to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the earth.
One of solar geoengineering method the scientists came up with involves spraying surface aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect away sunlight.
Scientists are now experimenting this strategy with releases of these tiny particles into the stratosphere using air plane or hot air balloons, where they can effectively increase sunlight resistance. The biggest advantages of this method are relative cost-effectiveness, speedy application and reversibility.
Another solar geoengineering method involves brightening clouds above the oceans which will cause the clouds to reflect away more light before it can be absorbed by the dark oceans below.
To achieve this, tiny seawater aerosols could be sprayed over the ocean, so that smaller forming droplets can stick to them, depending on the size of water droplets that form it.
Direct carbon capture is another method and an umbrella term used to describe a variety of chemical processes used to filter CO2 from the air. After the CO2 is filtered, it is then stored underground or funnelled to be used to make consumer goods.
Carbon capture did not only address the root problem of excess atmospheric Co2 but also presented fewer risks than the other climate-altering technologies.
Scientists have estimated that the world need to capture as much as 10 gigatonnes of Co2 per year by the middle of the century for this technology to be effective.
To give some perspective of the task ahead, Clime works, one of the biggest operators in the sector, is only able to capture 4,000 tonnes of Co2 each year. The Cabon capture method requires extensive investments for it to be effective on global scale.
However, carbon capture is quickly becoming an everyday reality and has already facilitated the growth of a market for carbon trading with companies such as Clime works, Carbon Engineering, Global Thermostat and Carbon Cure working to commercialize their techniques.
Big oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) has begun investing heavily in in the new technology.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Daren Woods predicted that the company’s new low carbon business has the potential to outperform its legacy oil and gas business and generate hundreds of billion s in revenues.
”This business is going to look quite a bit different from the base business of Exxon Mobil. It is going to have a much more stable , or less cyclical, profile,” Dan Ammann, president of Exxon’s two year-old Low Carbon Business Solutions unit, vowed.
Oil field services giant, Schlumberger Ltd (NYSE:LLB) has also created the SLB New Energy unit encompassing carbon solutions including CCUS, hydrogen, geothermal and Geoenergy, energy storage and critical minerals.
SLB New Energy President, Govin Rennick, estimates the new segment will hit $3 billion by the end of the current decade and exceed $10 billion by the end of the next decade.