Emissions standards lead to power station redesign

Age
Friday 6/8/2010 Page: 5

THE company behind a proposed Latrobe Valley coal power station has been forced into a redesign after being warned it would not meet new greenhouse gas emissions standards. Dual Gas a subsidiary of Melbourne company HRL has withdrawn its application to build a long-delayed plant at Morwell that would use new gasification technology to cut emissions from brown coal. An HRL spokeswoman said it would resubmit the plan to the Environment Protection Authority once it had been adjusted to meet the limit for new power plants set in last week's state government climate change white paper.

Premier John Brumby announced a limit of 0.8 tonnes of CO2 perMW hour of energy generated. HRL estimates its plant would have average emissions between 0.78 and 0.89 tonnes perMW hour roughly equivalent to a modern black coal power plant. It is understood it may be able to meet the new standard by adjusting its design to use less synthetic gas derived from coal and more natural gas. Environment groups have called on Mr Brumby to intervene and block the plant to show he is serious about meeting his 20% cut in emissions target this decade.

The average emissions intensity of power stations in wealthy nations is 0.45 tonnes of gas perMW hour. Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Wayne Kayler-Thomson said developing new plants was vital to ensuring a secure energy supply. "Critics of cleaner coal want to have their cake and eat it too shutting down traditional brown coal plants... that supply 80% of the state's power, as well as their cleaner coal replacements", he said.

The withdrawn HRL proposal said the plant would have emissions up to 36% lower than existing brown coal plants. It said developing the gasification technology through a Morwell demonstration plant was important to giving brown coal power a future while reducing emissions. But environment groups said the plant's annual emissions up to 4.2 million tonnes would cancel out the pollution cut achieved under a government plan to shut a quarter of the Hazelwood brown coal station by 2014.

Cam Walker from Friends of the Earth said HREs proposal was a litmus test of whether the Brumby government deserved praise for its climate change policy. "They should indicate that the time of new coal-fired power stations in Victoria is over. We have other options", he said.