Carbon Capture & Storage: Why we need a campaign against Longannet Mandy Meikle Scotland Against New Coal Scottish Climate Camp 13 June 2009

Longannet power station, in Fife, is Scotlands largest coal-fired power station Peter Macdonald,

Owned & operated by Scottish Power, a subsidiary of Iberdrola Installed capacity - 2,400 MW (4 x 600MW boilers) 2008 facts & figures

Owned & operated by Scottish Power, a subsidiary of Iberdrola Installed capacity - 2,400 MW (4 x 600MW boilers) 2008 facts & figures 2,496,000 tonnes of coal 49,000 tonnes of Waste Derived Fuel 13,000 tonnes of biomass What goes in 1 :

Owned & operated by Scottish Power, a subsidiary of Iberdrola Installed capacity - 2,400 MW (4 x 600MW boilers) 2008 facts & figures CO 2 – 5,957,000 tonnes SO 2 – 23,600 tonnes NOx – 14,100 tonnes dust – 390 tonnes HCl – 289 tonnes 2,496,000 tonnes of coal 49,000 tonnes of Waste Derived Fuel 13,000 tonnes of biomass What comes out 2 : What goes in 1 :

Owned & operated by Scottish Power, a subsidiary of Iberdrola Installed capacity - 2,400 MW (4 x 600MW boilers) 2008 facts & figures 288,000 tonnes fly ash was also produced, the majority of which was sold to industry or piped as a slurry to nearby land reclamation 3. 2,496,000 tonnes of coal 49,000 tonnes of Waste Derived Fuel 13,000 tonnes of biomass What comes out 2 : What goes in 1 : CO 2 – 5,957,000 tonnes SO 2 – 23,600 tonnes NOx – 14,100 tonnes dust – 390 tonnes HCl – 289 tonnes

NOx: Longannet is fitted with 'Low-NOx' burners yet it still came tenth in the league of big NOx polluters 1. Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology will be fitted at Longannet to continue beyond 2015 – til 2030 Sulphur: In 2008, flue gas desulphurisation equipment was installed to remove sulphur dioxide from the emissions of three of its four boilers. Scottish Power can now burn Scottish coal again 2 – which means opencast coal Longannet also burns sewage sludge, which is illegal 3, but was allowed as part of an agreement which required Scottish Power to construct, and have in operation, a biomass plant by A 25 MW Longannet Biomass Power Station is now in planning 4 but now its all about... Pollution

Carbon Capture & Storage A demonstration of CCS began at Longannet on 29 May 2009 Longannet is one of 3 contenders left in the Governments CCS competition Even by 2014, Longannet would only capture CO 2 from half of one boiler (300MW) – this is too little too late

What is Carbon Capture & Storage? There are 3 methods currently used in industry: Pre-combustion: fossil fuel is burned & converted into synthetic gas (e.g. for fuel) and the CO 2 is captured Oxy-fuel combustion: similar but the fuel is burned in oxygen instead of air. Again, CO 2 is removed from the fossil fuel by chemical processes Post-combustion: CO 2 is removed after combustion of the fossil fuel - this is the scheme that would be applied to conventional power plants The technology is well understood but not at the same scale as required in a commercial power station

Whats the problem? Unproven This technology is totally unproven at the scales required. We are betting the climate that CCS will be made to work

Whats the problem? Unproven This technology is totally unproven at the scales required. We are betting the climate that CCS will be made to work Cost CCS increases the fuel requirement of a coal-fired power plant by 25%. Storage and other system costs increase the costs of CCS by 30-60% 1

Whats the problem? Unproven This technology is totally unproven at the scales required. We are betting the climate that CCS will be made to work Cost CCS increases the fuel requirement of a coal-fired power plant by 25%. Storage and other system costs increase the costs of CCS by 30-60% 1 Energy demand captured by amine scrubbers or quicklime requires heat to remove the captured CO 2, which typically results in extra energy costs of 20-30% compared to plants with no capture 2

Whats the problem? Unproven This technology is totally unproven at the scales required. We are betting the climate that CCS will be made to work Cost CCS increases the fuel requirement of a coal-fired power plant by 25%. Storage and other system costs increase the costs of CCS by 30-60% 1 Energy demand captured by amine scrubbers or quicklime requires heat to remove the captured CO 2, which typically results in extra energy costs of 20-30% compared to plants with no capture 2 Enhanced Oil Recovery may act as a stimulus for CCS especially if developers believe that oil will remain at over $100 per barrel 3

Theres no Plan B No debate over what we are doing Its a given that CCS is the way forward. We will not stop burning coal so CCS must be made to work. So why here? We have renewable resources & should be experimenting with localisation. Why not set up a massive aid programme to develop CCS where its needed?

Theres no Plan B No debate over what we are doing Its a given that CCS is the way forward. We will not stop burning coal so CCS must be made to work. So why here? We have renewable resources & should be experimenting with localisation. Why not set up a massive aid programme to develop CCS where its needed? NGOs making supportive statements New-builds versus retrofit: WWF 1 reports that future CCS emissions reductions at Longannet are equivalent to turning off 2 coal-fired power stations for a year whereas new-builds could increase emissions by equivalent to an extra 4.5 coal-fired power stations a year

Theres no Plan B No debate over what we are doing Its a given that CCS is the way forward. We will not stop burning coal so CCS must be made to work. So why here? We have renewable resources & should be experimenting with localisation. Why not set up a massive aid programme to develop CCS where its needed? NGOs making supportive statements New-builds versus retrofit: WWF 1 reports that future CCS emissions reductions at Longannet are equivalent to turning off 2 coal-fired power stations for a year whereas new-builds could increase emissions by equivalent to an extra 4.5 coal-fired power stations a year Opportunities for the North Sea A report out last month said the North Sea has the capacity to store all of Europe's CO 2 for 200 years!

SANC launched on 1 October 2008 SANC formed as part of the No New Coal movement SANC was to be the spiky end of a coalition of Scottish NGOs but we are totally opposed to CCS SANC has met with Scottish Power twice & are meeting with local MP on 10 July SANC wants to start a public debate on why CCS is not the answer

If the demonstration works, will you commit to fitting CCS to all 4 boilers? If so, when? If not, why not? If the demonstration does not work, will you commit to closing Longannet immediately? We want Scottish Power to answer these questions: We need answers to these questions to get the debate going Meanwhile, we need a demonstration of our own...that not everyone is falling for the CCS myth

Scotland Against New Coal