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Proposed coal power plant will release more carbon than Ghana
22 January 2008
The proposed Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent will release more carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere than Ghana’s total carbon emissions each year according to new research from the World Development Movement today.
The government’s Energy Bill will be debated in parliament tomorrow, covering coal, nuclear and renewable energy, and campaigners claim that this evidence starkly demonstrates the government’s contradictory stance on energy and climate change policies.
Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement said:
“It is impossible for the government to claim that they are pro-coal but anti-climate change. The fact that the government is backing a new coal-fired power station that would release more harmful carbon into the air than Ghana, which has a population of 22 million people, is deeply alarming and completely incompatible with the need to cut the UK’s carbon emissions by more than 80% to avoid disastrous climate change.
“The government is relying on carbon capture and storage technology to try to make a dirty industry clean, but they are pinning our hopes on technology that isn’t available yet. This seems like a risky strategy at best.
“Energy and climate change policies must work towards the same end goal of avoiding dangerous climate change. If the government continues down this contradictory policy path, climate change will continue unabated and millions of people in the developing world will lose their lives and their livelihoods.”
The World Development Movement is calling for a public inquiry into the proposed Kingsnorth coal-fired power station.
ENDS
For comment or interview please contact:
Kate Blagojevic
Press officer, World Development Movement
0207 820 4900/4913, 07711 875 345, Email:
Notes to Editors
The calculation showing the carbon emissions from Ghana and Kingsnorth are outlined below:
- According to the US Energy Information Administration, Ghana produced 6.7 million tonnes of CO2 from all activities in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available. http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/tableh1co2.xls
Greenpeace have estimated that the proposed Kingsnorth coal-fired power station would produce 8.1 million tonnes of CO2 a year. This was calculated in the following way:
- It is estimated that the proposed Kingsnorth plant will be working 88% of the time according to manufacturers and 92% of the time according to PB Power consultants. Taking the average of 90%, the proposed plant will generate electricity for 7884 hours a year.
- The power station will produce at 1.6 GW x 7884 hours = 12.6 TWh/y of output
- Based on an emissions factor for new supercritical coal plant of 646g CO2/kwh - the proposed Kingsnorth coal plant will produce 8.14 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
- The DTI white paper on energy states that the UK uses 350TWh a year of electricity, which means that the proposed new Kingsnorth power plant will supply 3.6 per cent of the UK’s electricity. "Meeting the energy challenge: A white paper on energy" (May 2007 pdf). http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file39387.pdf
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