Response to Carbon Capture and Storage feature on the BBC Politics Show, Yorkshire Region, Sunday 12th October 2008.
Instead of Yorkshire looking forward to tacking climate change, the Carbon Capture and Storage smokescreen will keep us fixed on the dirtiest of all the fossil fuels.
Responding to today’s comments about Carbon Capture and Storage on the BBC programme ‘The Politics Show’ Chris Mackins, from the campaign Yorkshire Against New Coal said:
“Carbon Capture and Storage is an unproven technology that does not exist on an industrial scale and is probably decades away from being technologically or economically feasible – it might or it might not work. CCS is a smokescreen that will keep Yorkshire fixated on burning the dirtiest of all the fossil fuels when instead we should be looking forward to tackling the source of the climate change problem, through true clean energy technologies that already exist and proven to work – a combination of Combined Heat and Power and a renewable energy technologies mix. With less than ten years to avert catastrophic climate change, we cannot afford to wait and see if CCS will work or not
”Yorkshire Against New Coal recognises that the government’s scheme to increase coal use and to renew outdated coal-fired power stations is a disaster for climate change, when instead, clean, sustainable and renewable solutions should be supported and developed. YANC is opposed to new coal developments and believes that:
- New coal exploitation should not play a role in the UKs energy programme.
- Using coal will prevent the UK from meeting it’s CO2 reduction objectives and will also signal to the world that coal is acceptable.
- That our energy requirements can be met through a range of renewables and decentralisation.
For more information, contact: info@yanc.org.uk
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I would recommend some deeper research for future posts:-
1. Carbon capture from coal fired power stations has been operating since 1978 at industrial scale in the US for Sodium Carbonate manufacture at several hundred thousand tons per year with newer plants operating at much higher rates.
2. 1 MT/yr of CO2 has been injected underground in the North Sea for over 10 years at the Sleipner Field
3. in the US 50MT/yr of CO2 are moved around the country by pipeline with most all of this being injected safely into the ground
4. Renewables and Nuclear together cannot fill the power gap created by closing down coal fired systems. CCS is essential component with renewables and Nuclear to create a bridge to a carbon free future – it simply buys time which is what the planet needs.
5. I understand and appreciate the concerns regarding the local impact of open cast mining, but please do not use an opposition to open cast mining to rubbish CCS technology which is a key part of a porfolio solution to climate change where ALL the parts are needed! – See Friends of the Earth / Greenpeace / RSPB / WWF / Bellona etc etc
Thank you
Aj
There are a few small scale CCS plants – however, nobody knows when CCS will be commercially available – the theoretical possibility is being used by government and industry to bulldoze through new coal power station in the UK. Yet, in reality government and business lack confidence. For example, Alastair Darling, when Chancellor, told Parliament that CCS is “still in the foothills…and may never work…Yes, carbon capture and storage, if it can be developed, would help. But at this stage we cannot be certain of that. There is no commercial scale operation of CCS on power generation anywhere in the world” (Launch of Energy White Paper, May 23rd 2007)
There is no commercially operating CCS plant in the world and the technology remains unproven. So, CCS – may or may not happen. If it does, this is still years, and more likely decades away. Talking about a CCS proposal in Yorkshire, Prof Bruce Yardley (Professor of Metamorphic Geochemistry, and part of the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Consortium) says “It hasn’t been done on this scale before…and it would take and a great deal of expense and time to retrofit the power stations with the equipment required…I wouldn’t expect to see any of this in place until 2030 at the earliest.” (BBC The Politics Show, October 12th 2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/7655542.stm
There is also industry scepticism:
Centrica: “We believe that any investment in coal without carbon capture will be increasingly risky. We therefore have no current plans to invest in coal generation without carbon capture” And also “It should also be noted that several clean coal projects proposed in the UK have to date only committed to their plants being “capture ready”, rather than developing an integrated carbon capture and storage solution at the same time as the new generation plant. Almost any generation plant can be altered to capture carbon…We believe that government support for clean coal technology should be limited to those plants actually implementing carbon capture and storage, rather than capture-ready.” (WWF ‘UK Power Giants’ Report, September 2007).
Greenpeace, using the Freedom of Information Act obtained an email under the Freedom of Information Act that confirmed that E.ON (Kingsnorth owners and developers) are also sceptical and that CCS “obviously..has no current reference for viability at any scale.” http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/coalsecrets
As for the energy gap debate, this is nothing more than scare mongering. There are a number of coal and nuclear power stations in the UK that are due for closure in the next few years. If these closed without any kind of replacement, the country would be facing an energy gap of about 25% of generating capacity. However, Gordon Brown has stated that we will produce about 40% of our electricity from renewable by 2020 (Q&A session, WWF event at the Foreign Press Association, November 2007). Coupled with energy efficiency, where’s the gap?
YANC are not campaigning against the open cast based on local impact issues. Though we recognise these as very real and concerning matters for local populations and the local environment. YANC is supportive of the local opposition campaign but is itself campaigning against the open cast proposal based on climate change – our message of No New Coal is clear – it should be left in the ground.
I think that some of the quotations used shows the position views of various environmental NGOs.
Chris
Yorkshire Against New Coal