Coal good, kingsnorth bad

What really gets my goat is the way that "environmental" pressure groups randomly pick on their subject - what they will campaign for, or against.

Take for example heathrow - runways don't emit, nor do they enable extra flights (it's all about planes and economics) - yet they're campaigning against the runway.

Kingsnorth gets it in the neck because that could actually save the world - yet the underground gasification plant to be built in Fife has been ignored - even though that will generate emissions that cannot be sequestered.
So has the Hatfield gasification plant.

It takes the piss.

Coal seems to be good, whilst Kingsnorth is bad. Who are these people who are leading the campaign? I've almost given up blogging because I think they have won and I don't believe we will see our old power stations replaced with more efficient modern ones.

It's really depressing.

40 New coal mines within the decade

Here's the thing, no matter what the labour government believes coal isn't going away.
South Africa think that they need 40 new coal mines by 2020. That's a lot of coal.

This is a flat fact, not opinion. Obvious question - why are we going to stop building coal fired power stations when the south africans are developing 40 new mines?

The price of carbon

The EU carbon price has, of course, dropped with the recession. It's a concern that this low price will stifle investment in CCS - after all what is the requirement to invest in CCS if the abatment cost (per tonne) is more than the cost of an emission allowance from the open market?

The report is that Ed Miliband is seeking to implement a floor in the price of carbon, therefore ensuring that the price does not drop too far.

Ofcourse this isn't popular - it will cost some people money (but make money for those people with allowances to sell, such as steel producers).

I doubt things will change.

$3 400 000 000 for Carbon capture and storage

The american stimulus package (possibly a little old now - I've not been following that closely) has $3.4bn included for carbon capture and storage. That's probably somewhere around enough for two demonstration plants.

The trouble is that america has no price on carbon - so this really is money pushed underground. Once they have a price on carbon the bean counters in every company can price in CCS and find some reason to use it - as they can in the EU.

...and in that respect we're a long way ahead.

LCPD

The large combustion plant directive will shut 1/3 of our coal fired power stations by 31st December 2015 (or 20 000 hours from 1st January 2008). Based upon current operation I believe that most plants will stop in 2012 as their 20 000 hours expire.

I've heard a rumour (from another member of my group) that the government is trying to extend the life of these plants by opting them out of the LCPD for a few years - until the government can get its arse into gear and actually permit new coal (although I wander if it will be built even if permitted).

So the point of delaying building new coal is to keep the politicians happy - whilst we emit more CO2 than we would need to.
Do you really think that coal industry wants this to happen?

It's just so f*ucking frustrating!

End of efficient coal in the UK

The guardian is reporting today that the government has again deferred the decision on whether or not to permit new coal fired power stations.

This may mean the decision is getting too close to the next election, and won't happen until the next government - the last possible date for an election being the 3rd June 2010.

It takes three years to build a coal fired power station, and it is required by around 2012-15 (although I know there is a lot of gas fired capacity being built).

Faced with this I wouldn't now expect any new coal fired power stations to be built in the UK - the government has quashed them.

This means that the old ones will be kept running, almost at any cost - if they can't be replaced the energy companies will do what E.on is doing at Ratcliffe on Soar, and life extend their plants.
These emit around 20% more CO2 because of the old technology that they are using.

All the government is doing is increasing the price of our electricity (by mandating gas), failing to test CCS (so the E7 can't use it and won't reduce their emissions - meaning there is no point in us reducing ours) and failing to tackle older plant and bring them off grid.

All in all my opinion is that this policy is completely f*cked.