By Paul Homewood
h/t Henning Nielsen
You could not make it up!
From the Guardian:
Greece appears on track to win access to a controversial EU programme that could earmark up to €1.75bn (£1.56bn) in free carbon allowances for the building of two massive coal-fired power plants.
The 1100MW coal stations will cost an estimated €2.4bn, and emit around 7m tonnes of CO2 a year, casting doubt on their viability without a cash injection from an exemption under Europe’s carbon trading market.
The European parliament’s industry committee last month approved a rule change allowing Greece to join the scheme, the ‘10c derogation’ of the emissions trading system (ETS). Now, positive votes in the environment committee next month and at a plenary in February could set wheels in motion for the coal plants.
Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, a Dutch Liberal MEP on the environment committee, said: “Lignite [coal] has no future and should not be stimulated in any way. Greece’s intention of using public funds to revive its lignite-based model should not be allowed. Article 10C is there to help poor countries towards a sustainable energy future. Lignite does not fit these criteria.”
“You couldn’t make this up,” added Imke Lübbeke, WWF Europe’s head climate and energy policy. “The ETS was intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but it now risks being abused to facilitate investments in the new coal plants, which would operate well within the 2060s.
“This would violate climate targets and is in no way compatible with the leadership role the EU aspires to play in global climate policy and carbon markets.”
Greece depends on 16 ageing lignite coal units for around half of its electricity production and its energy establishment sees two new lignite plants in western Macedonia as a cost-effective way of modernising and securing energy supplies.
Emmanuel Panagiotakis, the president of the Greek public power corporation (GPPC), told MEPs last year that without access to free emissions allowances, Greek lignite production would be discredited, causing electricity costs to skyrocket and jeapordising energy security.
One of the two new plants, Ptolemaida V, is already under construction, with its €1.4bn price tag underwritten by a €739m loan from a consortium led by the German export bank, KfW-Ipex. As well as CO2, the plant would annually emit significant air pollution: 2,100 tonnes of sulphur dioxide (SO2), 2,800 tonnes of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 140 tonnes of particulates, studies say.
A memorandum of understanding for the other plant, Meliti II, was signed in September between the Greek government and CMEC, a Chinese construction company.
Greece has the lowest quality lignite in Europe and plants such as these would not be viable without access to free carbon allowances, according to Panagiotakis.
Note that China is involved in building the second plant, something they are doing across the world.
On normal loading, the two plants can be expected to produce 15 TWh annually, about half the amount generated by coal last year in the UK.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
December 17, 2017 at 11:42AM
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