6. Clean-coal ‘better than
wind’
The UK
could cut the cost of reducing greenhouse gases by £3bn if it fitted
clean-coal technology to its aging power
stations, rather than building wind farms, according to Mitsui Babcock,
the British based power station manufacturer. It says that some 2,000 wind turbines will be installed
in the UK
over the next six years at a total cost of approximately £9 bn,
as power companies seek to comply with a government demand to increase
supplies of renewable energy. However,
it is urging the Government to invest in clean-coal technology, which
it argues could be fitted to the UK’s
16 coal-fired power stations for only £6bn. It claimed that “the cost of installing clean-coal technology
across the coal-fired fleet could be achieved at almost half the cost
of achieving equivalent reductions using renewable sources”
Mitsui Babcock wants the Government to introduce
a form of incentive, similar to the renewable obligation certificate,
for power generators to invest in clean-coal technology. Clean coal
technology could, they say, cut carbon dioxide emissions by 50-60%
from current levels, and they claim that wind power is 6 times more
expensive than its technology in delivering the same CO2 reduction
throughout the life of the power station.
Source: The
Times, November 22, 2004
* We assume they are talking about integrated coal-gassification combined-cycle plants, in which case the figures
for CO2 savings and costs seem very surprising. You could of course
get 100% emission savings through carbon sequestration, but then the
costs would be even higher.
The Transport
and General Workers Union and Amicus,
the engineering union, have both backed ‘clean coal’, but they seem
to be mainly talking about FGD- acid gas desulphurisers-
which would actually increase the net CO2 produced since they reduce
the plants energy conversion efficiency.
Lib Dem MP Roger Williams has said that plans for
a 16 turbine wind farm in Wales,
which had met with local opposition, should go to a public inquiry and be
examined by an independent inspector. He commented “I am only too aware of the damage that was done to south Wales in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the
rush for coal.”
