Protest

Protest is a democratic right, one which must be protected if this country isn't going to go to the dogs. Whilst there is always the scope for the protesters to turn against democracy we have to assume that it is a remote possability.

We also have to assume that the government will do little more than take note of the protests - if government policy was just dictated by protesters we'd live in a very poor society indeed, with no planning beyond the immediate term.

So here's the thing - how do you police protests at power stations?

Power stations, by their nature are strategic assets of national importance. Turn them off and large swathes of the country can easily be blacked out with the local economy shutting down for a few hours. Continue the theme with regular blackouts and people will start loosing their jobs. Not pretty.
It's little surprise, therefore, that the police have been accussed of being heavy handed - after all they need to protect millions of people against the posibility that there are a few nutters in the croud who are there just to cause disruption.

Yes, people are entitled to peaceful protest - but you have to realise that with so many people seemingly willing to cross the moral line the police do have little choice but to assume that everyone out to cause as much trouble as possible - even if the demonstration is billed as peaceful.

Sadly, that includes kids.

Capture ready

I was recently told that some coal fired power stations in the states were willing to make themselves carbon capture ready (CCR) - ie. position themselves (when built) so that they have at least the option of fitting carbon capture and storage to them further down the line.

If they're not capture ready CCS will never happen on them, so that's a good thing.

Essentially the biggest thing to be done is to ensure that they've got lots of land next door to build the capture plant on, although the possiblity to take off steam in the turbines also, I'm told, has to be considered (although this can be done later).
A route for the Carbon Dioxide out also has to be considered.

Plants in India are also doing the same thing.

What was surprising is that the plants in America insisted on it being called something else - not 'capture ready'. Essentially "green" groups have smeered the name so much that the plants can't now publicise it.

I think that's sad - where "green" pressure groups are campainging so strongly against 90% emission reductions that they almost don't happen.

Coal is clean...

...but it wasn't always like this.

I think that part of the problem with public acceptance of coal today is the association within people minds of how it was used in the past. Take for example this recent news story from the BBC.
They quite rightly talk about the heavy emissions from coal which have ended up in the artic - before moving on to talk about how the game has been changed, the emissions have been cleaned up, and the problem of increased heavy metal emissions (from what is know as BAT - best available technology plants) has largely gone away.

Such emissions are relavtively easy to clean up, since most metals are contained within the smoke from the boiler - by collecting most of the particles which are in the smoke the metal emissions are drastically reduced.

A good example of this mindset is when I recently flew back from the United States - I had some coal samples with me which I couldn't take on board the plance, since they are a "fuel".
Fine, but by the time the samples would have started to do anything the cardboard box and plastic bags they were wrapped in would have been turned to ash.
As would all the clothes of everyone on board.

So it comes down to public perception - as you read the article do you think that coal is a dangerous technology, or one that has cleaned up its act (at least inside the EU) sufficiently well to be included in todays energy mix?

Comment is free

Whilst crusing the internet I came across a news story on CCS with a surprising amount of comment:

Why we need CCS - whether you like the idea or not! - ABC news Australia.

I was struck by the number of people trying to demonise CCS, people who clearly didn't understand it.

It struck me - how many people have already made up their mind on something that they don't understand?
I bet it's very many - afterall it's very easy to blame something - you just call it dangerous, say it could kill peoples children then stand back and watch the fireworks.

People (understandably) will do the rest.

Greenpeace have been very successful in doing this for nuclear. I hope they don't succeed with coal.