Tonight:
4°c
Another week, another protest at a coal-fired power station.
The decision by E.ON this month to abandon plans to build a new coal-fired plant at its existing site at Kingsnorth in Kent was seen as a huge victory for the Green lobby.
This week, the campaign against coal moved to Didcot in Oxfordshire when a group of Climate Camp followers invaded the 37-year-old coal-fired power station, which is due for closure under EU pollution rules in 2015.
Coal currently produces one third of the UK's generated electricity. Does coal have a future in the UK energy mix? Tony Lodge, an energy industry commentator says: “Yes, with clean coal' technology, of course it should.”
Environmental campaigner Amy Johnson, who led the Didcot incursion, says: “Absolutely not.”
Tony Lodge
E.ON had waited many years for planning permission at Kingsnorth. It had secured local planning permission from Medway Council in 2008 and it has demonstrated at all levels its determination and intention to fit carbon capture and storage to the new plant, which the Government claims to support.
Kingsnorth's delay now means that a staggering 95% of all proposed and ongoing power plant build in the UK is gas-fired.
We risk losing all diversity in our energy mix and, as Ofgem points out in its latest report today, overdependence on gas could lead to energy bills rising by 60% by 2016 due to volatile gas markets and overdependence.
Many people do not seem to realise that there is already a coal-fired power plant at Kingsnorth, which is over 35 years' old. This plant has not been fitted with any emissions-reduction technology but still provides nearly 2,000MW of electricity to the grid — enough to power a city the size of Manchester.
Because replacement of this plant is now delayed, the old plant will continue onto 2016 and possibly beyond, if the then Government needs to continue to use older power stations to avoid an energy generation gap.
It is ironic to think that the campaign of those opposed to Kingsnorth will prolong the lives of dirty and old coal-fired stations for many years rather than supporting eventual full coal abatement, and carbon capture and storage at new coal plants, thereby allowing the UK to slash carbon emissions.
This whole sorry saga has confirmed the lack of a strategic energy policy in the UK.
Amy Johnson
Since E.ON shelved its plans to build a new coal plant at Kingsnorth this month we realised npower, the operator of Didcot, is the new frontline.
Another German utility company like E.ON, npower says it wants to build new coal-fired power stations in Britain at Tilbury and Hunterston.
It hasn't dropped its plans to build the dirtiest new power stations in Britain for 30 years and its constructing new coal plants right across Europe. We're here until they say it will stop building new coal plants.
In every country CO2 emissions are linked to economic growth, so in countries such as the UK our insatiable hunger for more and more products, and consumer goods is driving climate change.
The world's finite resources need to be shared more fairly, and the richest countries that got us into this mess need to take the lead in reducing emissions.
We're here to demand climate justice as world leaders prepare to meet in Copenhagen to debate climate change. We're defending human life and
people's property around the world that is in immediate need of protection from the ravages of rising global temperatures.
While npower claims that new coal is necessary “to keep the lights on”, in reality its push for new coal plants at Tilbury and Hunterston is motivated by profit, with coal cheaper than other fuels despite its enormous climate impact.
Consultants at Pöyry — Europe's leading independent energy experts — found that Britain could easily meet its energy demands without resorting to new coal as long as the country hits its renewable and energy efficiency targets.
