King Coal is back and carbon targets look shot

[david dissadent]

Here in the UK

The Government will today anger environmentalists by signalling its support for a controversial new generation of coal-fired power stations and warning that Britain needs to burn more fossil fuels to prevent power cuts.


John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, will say that "clean coal" has a crucial role to play in filling Britain's energy gap for the future. He will accuse the green lobby of "gesture politics" by opposing any coal-fired plants, putting energy supplies at risk and presenting a false "black and white" choice to the public over coal.

Mr Hutton, the cabinet minister responsible for energy, will speak about the future of coal for the first time at a speech to the free market Adam Smith Institute in London.

But his speech is bound to raise questions about government environmental policy just two days before the the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, tries to reassure the green lobby by raising taxes on gas-guzzling vehicles.

Mr Hutton's remarks will be seen as a clear sign that the Government will approve plans to build Britain's first coal-fired power station since 1984 at Kingsnorth, Kent.

Green campaigners view the £1bn proposal as a vital test of the Government's commitment to the environment. The energy company E.ON UK wants to demolish an outdated plant and replace it with two units using cleaner coal to supply 1.5 million homes by 2012.

The firm claimed it would cut carbon emissions by nearly two million tones a year and could be a ground-breaking "clean coal" plant, with the carbon emitted stored under the North Sea.

And in Germany

But it's a different story just a few kilometers away in a decrepit industrial park in the eastern Berlin neighborhood of Lichtenberg. There, energy provider Vattenfall is planning a project that hardly seems compatible with Merkel's grand plans for saving the climate.

The company wants to build a new coal-fired power plant there by 2012. The plan is for the new plant to burn up two million tons of Polish coal a year and provide a solid 800 megawatt electricity output, in addition to 600 megawatts of heat.

(older story though)

 

[ViolentPanda]

Thanks for posting.
In terms of "greenness", neither of the articles mention where the coal would be sourced from, but if we assume (a very dangerous thing to do! ) that it will be "local" production (and the siting of the British plants appears to indicate this), then we're talking about the UK coal plants burning anthracite and using scrubbing and sequestering the emissions to reduce the carbon footprint, as against the Berlin proposal which would (again given "local" sourcing of coal) almost certainly use lignite, which would be a hell of a lot harder (and more expensive) to "scrub".
I suspect there's an element of "energy security" underlying this, that isn't getting mentioned.

E2A: The Polish coal could be lignite or anthracite. I suspect the ultimate arbiter of what gets used will depend on cost, as it always does.

 

[david dissadent]

sequestering the emissions to reduce the carbon footprint,

Sequestering sounds like fairy stories to me. Compressing CO2, transporting it then re-injecting it into old oil and gas fields..... does not sound like a cheap and low energy solution to me.

Anyone care to prove me wrong?

I suspect there's an element of "energy security" underlying this, that isn't getting mentioned.

Sakhalin and shtokman are not exactly on time, on budget and ready to pump gas to the EU.

Anyone would think the goverment is buying all that peak oil nonsence.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

Which part of the 'peak oil' information do you regard as nonsense? Can we really continue to extract oil at the current rate for ever?

 

[david dissadent]

Which part of the 'peak oil' information do you regard as nonsense? Can we really continue to extract oil at the current rate for ever?

I was trying to be a bit sarcastic as official estimates put peak oil at 2030.

We still have not topped May 2005's crude and condisate production since then although we came damn close in December 2007. But although there are a large number of so called mega projects underway we have both Burgan and Catarell, the worlds second and third largest fields, now officialy in depletion. Taking Matt Simmonds "Twilight in the Desert" at face value, then we have just about peaked now.

Russia may also be struggling to keep up production.

 

[david dissadent]

Link

Over the next five years, Italy will increase its reliance on coal to 33 percent from 14 percent. Power generated by Enel from coal will rise to 50 percent.

European countries are expected to put into operation about 50 coal-fired plants over the next five years, plants that will be in use for the next five decades

In the United States, fewer new coal plants are likely to begin operations, in part because it is becoming harder to get regulatory permits and in part because nuclear power remains an alternative. Of 151 proposals in early 2007, more than 60 had been dropped by the year’s end, many blocked by state governments. Dozens of other are stuck in court challenges.

As for its plant here, Enel says it will start experimenting with carbon-capture technology in 2015, in the hopes of “a solution” by 2020.

Carbon capture? Well colour me cynical.

While the logic of coal is not as obvious when you scratch the surface....

link

China is currently down to 12 days of reserves left, so it is struggling to maintin a power grid with rolling black outs (Saffers call it 'load shedding'). The well known huge building program to take a great leap forward into an energy intensive society is powered by coal, the world production capacity is not expanding fast enough to keep up with the new power stations coming online to consume it...... Now Europe wants to start accelerating its consumption coal.


One of the worlds largest coal producers South Africa has been hitting huge problems with its power grid recently, for a mixture of political and cost reasons its power stations are running low on coal and burning cheaper coals so they endulge in regular load shedding to keep the grid from falling appart. It is a well known problem down there and costing them alot in terms of economic growth. Now they are engaging in a vast new power station building project and coal procurement one as well.

http://www.davidstrahan.com/blog/?p=116

Will the coal be there?

I'd link to the New Scientist story as well but its behind there pay subscription.

Basically we are running out of the really cheap coals we have been using. We have terratonnes of the coal left (or so we assume), but it not going to be as cheap to get out of the earth. And with more people trying to buying it the cost will go up.


Anyone else feel like we are all drinking the cool-aid in Jonestown?

 

[stavros]

Sequestering sounds like fairy stories to me. Compressing CO2, transporting it then re-injecting it into old oil and gas fields..... does not sound like a cheap and low energy solution to me.

Anyone care to prove me wrong?

I'm by no means a geologist or climatologist, but this sort of thing strikes me as playing dangerous game with the Earth's as far as we know unique equilibrium that sustains life in its current form. Same goes for tree-planting to "offset".

 

[Random]

china's pretty likely to use coal for the forseeable, also. It's not no oil, but plenty of coal and plenty of disposable miners. About 5,000 a year, in fact.

 

[8ball]

Thank fuck for slavery and death keeping the lights on.

 

[Random]

Thank fuck for slavery and death keeping the lights on.

'Same as it ever was', as the, now legendary, David Byrne, might say.

 

[Dr Jon]

We still have not topped May 2005's crude and condisate production since then although we came damn close in December 2007. But although there are a large number of so called mega projects underway we have both Burgan and Catarell, the worlds second and third largest fields, now officialy in depletion. Taking Matt Simmonds "Twilight in the Desert" at face value, then we have just about peaked now

Simmons says the 21st Century energy crisis has now arrived.

Link (pdf)

 

[bi0boy]

Last Tuesday was the first time since 1882 that coal wasn't used to generate electricity in the UK. It happened several times last week including over 12 hours on Thursday.

 

[keybored]

Last Tuesday was the first time since 1882 that coal wasn't used to generate electricity in the UK.

...and I slept through it

 

[oneflewover]

Last Tuesday was the first time since 1882 that coal wasn't used to generate electricity in the UK. It happened several times last week including over 12 hours on Thursday.

Not understanding this, how do turn a coal fired power station off? All that heat, steam, pressure. All gone to waste?