Currently, the government is thinking of giving approval to a new coal power station at Kingsnorth, in Kent. If Kingsnorth is given the go-ahead, there will be at least another six coal power stations across the UK following with applications to build new, unabated coal power stations – creating a huge increase in demand for coal and as a consequence will generate a massive increase in CO2 emissions. One of these power stations will be at Ferrybridge

Nowhere in the world is there a power station that can sequester all of its CO2. There is no industrial/commercial carbons capture and storage (CCS) technology. CCS is a white elephant, a red herring; it will keep the UK fixated on the dirtiest of all the fossil fuels. We will become locked into a carbon economy – exactly the opposite of what Lord Turner, a government climate change advisor recommends. It could be decades, if at all, before this kind of technology is proven. It’s one thing for the government to investigate if the technology will work; it’s something else to be building new, unabated coal power stations in the hope that it will work ‘at some point’ in the future.

As old coal and nuclear power stations start to close, the UK would lose about 30% of its electricity generating capacity if not replaced. However, we can replace that generating capacity with technology that already exists. Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has confirmed that the UK could meet 40% of its electricity requirements by 2020 from technology such as renewables. The Government has also found that to reach this target, 160,000 jobs could be created. Of course, we also need to be reducing demand; so addressing energy efficiency is also a matter of paramount importance.

So yes, you are right, we need to be reducing our demand for coal, not increasing it as Ed Miliband is currently thinking. Why chase a technology that might or might not work to address climate change when alternative technologies are available in the here and now, allowing us to reduce our emissions to address climate change, create jobs, keep the lights on and increase security of supply.

In replies to YANC, the Lib Dems have said that they are “appalled that at a time when the Government should be working to reduce the UK’s emissions, ministers seem determined to allow a huge new polluting power station [Kingsnorth]” and the Conservatives have said to us that “No new coal-fired power station should be built in UK without CCS in place from outset”.

We now need real action from Government to address climate change, not empty rhetoric and certainly not a fleet of unabated coal power stations.

Chris.

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Jonathan
http://www.alt-sheff.co.uk (The guide to Sheffield’s radical, alternative, ethical business and groups)

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

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