WWF plays dirty over power plant emissions
11 May 2007
According to WWF, the UK’s biggest polluter was the Drax station at Selby, which released 23 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2006, up 10% on the previous year. Scottish Power's Longannet station and EDF Energy's Cottam station, meanwhile, each emitted over 10 million tonnes of CO2 and increased emissions by over 20% between 2005 and 2006.
The WWF report was dismissed as “ludicrous” by Drax spokesman, David Trenchard. He pointed out that emissions from the Selby plant were high as it was the largest coal-fired plant in Europe and its output had increased last year due to gas supply shortages.
According to Trenchard, the Drax plant is among the most efficient and cleanest coal-fired power stations in Europe and is on track to significantly reduce its emissions by 2009 through the use biomass-based fuels.
“Emissions did increase in 2006. However what needs to be understood is the reason for this increase, which lies within the economics of the energy market, in this case high gas prices, said the Drax spokesman.
“Compared to 2005, electricity supplied by UK coal-fired power stations rose by 11.5%, with electricity supplied from gas falling 7.5%. Supply from nuclear also fell over this period (an 8% drop compared to 2005), due to outages for repairs and maintenance. This demonstrates the importance of a diverse energy mix to maintain security of supply for the UK,” continued Trenchard.
Meanwhile, Dr Keith Allott, head of climate change, WWF-UK claimed that “the UK’s welcome attempts to show international leadership on climate change are being undermined by the dismal failure to cut our own emissions.”
“The power sector is now on a roll to coal … If the government wants to maintain international credibility on climate change, it must dramatically increase and diversify renewable energy, curb energy demand and provide the power sector with incentives or legislation to reduce coal burn,” Allott said, in a 10 May press statement.
WWF argues that proposed new coal-fired power stations could lock the UK into a high-carbon power sector for many decades. “No new coal-fired power stations should be accepted without an unambiguous commitment to fit carbon capture equipment,” Allott said.
According to Trenchard, there is a lot that coal fired power stations can do to tackle carbon emissions. For its part, he said, Drax has announced a £100-million turbine upgrade project to improve overall generation efficiency by 5%, taking it up to 40%, and save 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.
The WWF report, was compiled by energy consultancy IPA Energy + Water. The emissions data was based on an analysis of the Community Independent Transaction Log, where data are collected for the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, WWF stated.
WWF said its ‘Dirty Thirty’ were responsible for 393 million tonnes of CO2, some 10% of all EU CO2 emissions. The least efficient plants, in Greece and Germany, run on particularly CO2-intense lignite, while the UK stations run on hard coal, and are relatively efficient compared to these.
The 30 plants are mostly located in Germany and the UK (10 plants each), followed by Poland (four plants). Just four companies account for most of Europe's dirtiest power stations. Over half of the 30 plants analysed are run by RWE (Germany), Vattenfall (Sweden), EDF (France) and EON (Germany).
TABLE:
CO2 emissions (tonnes) from ten most polluting UK power stations, according to the WWF
|
Station, Company, 2005 2006 % increase |
|
Drax, Drax Power 20,771,624 22,764,847 +9.6% |
|
Longannet, Scottish Power 8,417,779 10,126,655 +20.3% |
|
Cottam, EDF Energy 8,068,565 10,029,024 +24.3% |
|
Didcot A+B, RWE NPower 9,304,881 9,504,880 +2.1% |
|
Kingsnorth, E.ON 7,766,631 8,915,967 +14.8% |
|
West Burton, EDF Energy 8,419,658 8,900,616 +5.7% |
|
Ferrybridge, Scottish & Southern 8,413,055 8,865,656 +5.4% |
|
Fiddlers Ferry, Scottish & Southern 8,492,925 8,404,878 -1% |
|
Ratcliffe, E.ON 8,638,887 7,812,287 -9.6% |
|
Eggborough, British Energy 7,215,160 7,649,883 +6% |
