Australian chief scientist advocates coal-fired power extensions

Lots of coal in Australia

Some say the ‘soaring prices and increased black outs’ mentioned in the report are at least partly due to over-hasty substitution of fuel-powered generation by expensive and intermittent renewable energy, mainly wind and solar. Now the argument is that Australia needs early action to try and prevent the situation getting even more serious.

Alan Finkel, Australia’s chief scientist, believes the country would be better off extending the life of existing coal-fired power plants, rather than investing in clean coal technology, as PEI reports.

Finkel says the move would increase Australia’s energy security in an affordable manner.

Australian PM argues the case for coal power

Dumper truck symbol = coal production [click on image to enlarge]

Can politicians put sanity ahead of ideology for Australian electricity generation following recent blackout fiascos?

The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has reinforced his belief in the importance of coal as a pragmatic part of the global energy mix, reports PEI. The Australian online reports Turnbull as saying he had the same opinion while leader of the opposition in 2009.

“We are the biggest coal exporter in the world. If anybody — if any country — has a vested interest in demonstrating that clean coal and cleaner coal with new technologies can make a big contribution to our energy mix — and, at the same time, reduce our emissions in net terms — it’s us.”

“Our approach, and my approach, to energy is absolutely pragmatic and practical. This is not a matter for ideology.” Mr Turnbull said both renewables and fossil fuels would have a role to play in energy production in the future.

BBC tries to spin China’s red-alert smog warning story

Beijing smog [image credit: BBC / Reuters]

The BBC TV News was quick to claim this should encourage China to ‘move away’ from fossil fuels. They conveniently (for themselves) forgot to mention that gas is also classed as a fossil fuel but does not cause smog, so is a viable option which China will use. The BBC’s implication was that alternatives like renewables would save the day, but ironically the smog itself is only lingering due to lack of wind and is blocking out the sun.

NB the report below is from CBBC (children’s TV) and doesn’t include the ‘spin’.

Parts of China have been covered under a thick blanket of smog for the last four days.The air quality in China can sometimes be so bad, that the government have to give people warnings about the level of pollution in the air.

When the levels are high they can close schools, stop planes taking off, close factories and limit the number of cars on the road.In north and central China, cities like Beijing, are currently under a red alert air pollution warning – the highest level.

Boss of German power group RWE warns of ‘horror scenario’

Bumpy road ahead?[image credit: RWE]

Pursuit of short-sighted energy policies is leading Germany on a dangerous path, as DW.COM reports from the AGM of major company RWE (aka ‘npower’ in the UK). Turning a blind eye to the possibility of future reliance on renewables won’t end well, says the CEO. Will any top politicians listen to the advice?

German power group RWE endures a bruising shareholders’ meeting. Still heavily involved with coal, the energy company has caught the brunt of activists and market changes. But its CEO has fought back, making the case for non-renewable energy sources.

UK’s Ferrybridge coal plant closes after 50 years

Ferrybridge ‘C’ Power Station
[image credit: Lynne Kirton / Wikipedia]

What exactly is replacing this generating giant? Only a small-scale waste wood burning operation it seems.

One of the UK’s landmark coal-fired power plants will close today after half a century of service. Ferrybridge C in Yorkshire was taken offline last week and will officially shut this afternoon, reports PEI.

Construction of the plant began in 1961 and it started generating electricity on February 27 1966. It became a record-breaking example of coal-fired power.

Drax mulls mothballing coal-fired plants due to losses

Drax power station [credit: drax.com]

No surprise to find that the UK energy policy of financially punishing coal-fired power plants is paying off, as PEI reports. What the consequences may be are anyone’s guess but they don’t look good.

British power group Drax could be set to mothball its coal-fired power plants as low gas prices, competition from renewables, withdrawal of government support and the UK’s plan to close its coal-fired plants by 2025 all take their toll.

New Energy Deal for Africa includes $93 billion for fossil fuel power in next 10 years

[image credit: FT.com]

It’s an ambitious plan and renewables are in there too, but it’s one thing to talk big numbers of dollars, another to produce them when needed. PEI mulls over the proposals.

The African Development Bank’s new president Akinwumi Adesina says he can mobilize up to $55bn to end the continent’s power generation problems. At least 620 million people have no access to power, including vast populations in war-torn countries such as South Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Adesina told Bloomberg, “I’m not bothered by that amount – that money is there. Today Africa generates $540bn in tax revenue per year. If you take 10 per cent of that and devote it to the energy sector, the problem is solved. If we light up and power Africa, we can have a GDP growth rate of double digits without any problem at all.”

Greenpeace wants to bid for German coal-fired power plants

Future in doubt

Slight problem for Greenpeace though – the likely price is over $2 billion, as PEI reports. This may look like another one of its publicity stunts, but some steps have already been taken.

Greenpeace is considering the purchase of more than 8,000 MW of lignite coal-fired power plant capacity, along with coal mines in Germany. The environmental group’s strategy is to prevent other interests from running the facilities and it is now looking at options to fund the purchases.

The assets are valued at $2.2bn and Annika Jacobson, head of Greenpeace in Sweden told Bloomberg, “there are many ways to finance such an acquisition and we are looking at those.”

India To Double Coal Production By 2020

[image credit: Pakistan Defence]

India has set a coal production target of 1.5 billion metric tons by 2020, twice its current production, reports the GWPF.

No climate paranoia here. Full steam ahead to social and economic progress, just like Europe and the USA used to do before their leaders were distracted by ‘man-made climate’ syndrome.

Coal consumption in India, particularly in the electric power sector, is outpacing India’s domestic production.

Scotland’s last coal-fired power station to close in March

Bye-bye Longannet [image credit: BBC]

It’s only a matter of time before increasing dependency on renewables proves to be a mistake. Details from the BBC: RIP Longannet power station.

Scotland’s last coal-fired power station, Longannet in Fife, is to close on 31 March next year.

Its owner, Scottish Power, said the high cost of connecting to the grid was to blame.

The company has also announced it is abandoning plans to build a new gas-fired power station at Cockenzie in East Lothian.

Longannet, which opened in 1972, is one of the biggest coal-fired power stations in Europe.

Obama wants to squeeze out US coal power plants

Wyoming coal trains [image credit: energycatalyzer3.com]

The ‘fight against global warming’, as reported by AFP/Fox News below, is more like shadow boxing but the impact on the real US economy from the enforced shutting down of coal-fired power stations could be significant.

President Barack Obama will impose steeper cuts on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants across the country than previously expected, senior administration officials said Sunday, in what the president called the most significant step the U.S. has ever taken to fight global warming.

EPA plan to ban coal hits major roadblock

US coal train [credit: Wikipedia]

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to degrade the country’s coal industry into oblivion with ruinous regulations has run into a legal roadblock, reports the SPPI Blog:

The EPA proposal to impose a de facto ban on new coal-fired power plants received more than two million comments from the public – but it looks like it was just one five-page comment from the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) that sent EPA scrambling back to the drawing board. The draft rule mandated the use of so-called carbon capture and storage, a technology that would inject carbon dioxide underground but which has so far proved to be little more than a white elephant experiment.

To mandate this technology, the law required the EPA to prove it was “adequately demonstrated” and “commercially available.” Thanks to E&E Legal, they failed.

EU member Poland breaks ground on new coal fired plant

Coal: back to the future
[image credit: BBC]

By Kelvin Ross

A groundbreaking ceremony has taken place in Poland on the site of a €800m lignite power plant in Turów.

The ceremony was attended by Poland’s Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz and representatives Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe (MHPSE), which will build the plant in co-operation with Polish company Budimex and Técnicas Reunidas from Spain.

MHPSE said that the lignite unit will have a gross capacity of just under 500 MW and an efficiency of more than 43 per cent. It will be operated by PGE, Poland’s largest power supplier.

MHPS Europe will supply the utility steam generator, the entire flue gas cleaning equipment, piping, turbine/generator, instrumentation & control and will also place the power plant into service.

The new unit – which is due to be operational in 2019 – will be built at an existing power plant where there are currently six units with an installed capacity of 1500 MW.

MHPSE chairman Rainer Kiechl said the new plant “will be one of the most modern of its type in the world”.

He added that it would make a “significant contribution to a dependable supply of power in an economy which is continuing to grow strongly”.

China to finance huge coal power projects in Pakistan

Moving coal in Pakistan

Asian countries don’t have the same paranoia as many Western governments about using coal to provide much-needed electricity to their vast populations. While the West toys with ineffective and hugely expensive weather-dependent systems, they take a far more practical approach. It looks like a follow-up to the massive Gaddani energy park scheme.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to unveil a $46 billion infrastructure spending plan in Pakistan that is a centerpiece of Beijing’s ambitions to open new trade and transport routes across Asia and challenge the U.S. as the dominant regional power. The largest part of the project would provide electricity to energy-starved Pakistan, based mostly on building new coal-fired power plants.

The plan, known as the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, draws on a newly expansive Chinese foreign policy and pressing economic and security concerns at home for Mr. Xi, who is expected to arrive in Pakistan on Monday. Many details had yet to be announced publicly.

“This is going to be a game-changer for Pakistan,” said Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan’s planning minister, who said his country could link China with markets in Central Asia and South Asia.

Antony Nailer: UK Electricity – Fossil v Renewable

Will British landscapes head the way of areas of the US?

Post by Antony Nailer, reblogged  from UKIP Daily.

The environmentalists will have us believe that renewables are providing a valuable contribution to the UK energy needs and that the use of any fossil fuels is evil.  So now after years of our landscape and seascape being despoiled by huge rotating wind turbines and fields being covered with solar arrays let us consider where we now are.

Coal was at one time was a huge industry in the UK employing hundreds of thousands of people but now a shadow of its former self. It has recently been announced that one of the last two remaining mines, at Thoresbury in Nottinghamshire, is to close this year with the loss of 1300 jobs at the mine and presumably thousands more in associated supporting industry.

We still have nine coal-fired power stations that are not scheduled for closure any-time soon. There is one at Ironbridge in Shropshire due to close within the next few months and not included in the following list.

NAME	LOCATION	BUILT	PRESENT OWNER	MW
Aberthaw	Barry, Glamorgan	1971	RWE npower	1500
Cottam	Nottinghamshire	1969	EDF Energy	2008
Drax	Selby, North Yorks	1974	Drax Group	3870
Eggborough	Goole, East Riding	1967	British Energy	1960
Fiddlers Ferry	Cuerdley, Cheshire	1971	SSE	1961
Ratcliffe on Soar	Nottinghamshire	1968	E.ON	2000
Rugeley	Staffordshire	1970	Int. Power	1006
West Burton	Nottinghamshire	1968	EDF Energy	1972
Wilton	Redcar & Cleveland	1951	SembCorp	197

Total continuous generation capacity 16,474MW (16.47GW). About 1/3^rdof peak needs.

#LibLabCon leaders agree to destroy UK economy at #Greenblob’s request

The BBC is trumpeting a joint statement by David Cameron, Ed Milliband and Nick Clegg which spells economic doom for the UK. If ever there was a good reason to vote on May 7th for the only party committed to scrapping wind farm subsidy and nonsense ‘climate targets’, this is it.

The three stooges write Britains economic suicide note.

The battle lines are drawn for me now. Energy policy is an important element in my campaign platform. Let’s take apart the statement’s key bullet points and assertions below the break.