Report warns against plan to extend lifespan of coal-fired power plants
A move to extend the life of coalfired power plants beyond a regulated 45 years could result in quadruple the amount of greenhouse gas emissions over the same period, said a new report by Pembina Institute.
Proposed changes to impending federal legislation would see the country’s oldest, least efficient power plants continuing to emit not only high levels of carbon dioxide, but also mercury and sulphur dioxide, the environmental think-tank said Thursday.
In Alberta and Saskatchewan, more than 60 per cent of annual mercury emissions, which are known to affect heart and brain development in children, come from coal-fired power generation, noted the report, titled The High Cost of Cheap Power.
“What our concern is the regulations that are being proposed aren’t moving fast enough and it’s going to allow the existing fleet, which produces a lot of emission, to run for decades still,” said Tim Weis, director of renewable energy at the institute.
Weis said running the 40-some coal units in Canada the extra five years suggested by industry, would release four times the emissions than building a new plant. It would be the second time the draft proposal, initially calling for a 40-year lifespan, would be extended by five years.
Ottawa has committed reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 607 million tonnes by 2020 to help address climate change.
Under proposed federal legislation set to come into force in 2015, set emission levels will apply to new coal-fired units but only apply to existing power plants on reaching their 45-year regulatory end-of-life.
The province of Ontario generates about 10 per cent of its power from coal and already has legislated shutting down coal-fired plants by the end of 2014.
In Alberta, more than 65 per cent of electricity is generated by coal, with TransAlta Corp.’s 2,100-megawatt Sundance power plant complex representing the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the entire country.
The problems with the legislation is it doesn’t give time for capital stock turnover, it mandates shutdowns regardless of plant efficiency, and ignores the costs, said Don Wharton, TransAlta vice-president of sustainable development.
“Why should the government say that plants have to close when,” he said. “This is an environmental regulation, it’s about emissions so the focus should be reducing emissions, not on a prescriptive rule that says what an industry has to do with the assets that they hold. That’s not about environment, that’s about the economics, that’s about the structure of the industry.”
Including the draft coal restrictions, Environment Canada projects national emissions will grow to 785 Mt by 2020, nearly 30 per cent above the target under current federal and provincial policies.