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NGO report argues against clean coal in South Africa
SOUITH AFRICA
SOUTH Africa’s proposed 1,500 MW of new coal capacity will cause significant air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, even if the clean- est technology currently available is used.
A report from a group of South African NGOs, led by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) and groundWork, found that even if the cleanest available technology is used, large quantities of greenhouse gas emissions are una- voidable if coal-fired power plants are built.
South African air pollution expert Ranajit Sahu said in the report that carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, such as pulverised coal units and circulating fluidised bed technol- ogy, would not be able to capture emitted carbon dioxide because of extremely high costs.
In 2019 the South African government pro- posed adding 1,500 MW of new coal generation in the country, as part of the Integrated Resource Plan for Electricity (IRP).
The IRP claims that such coal generation will be cleaner because high-efficiency, low-emission (HELE) generation technology will be used, although it does not specify which kind of tech- nology it had in mind..
Sahu found that in the case of circulating fluidized bed technology, which is considered preferable by the IRP due to its ability to handle low quality coal, the technology emits from two to 10 times more nitrous oxide than pulverized coal technologies.
“I want to stress that contrary to implications in the 2019 IRP and the Ministerial determina- tion, there is simply no such thing as “clean coal”, regardless of whether HELE technologies are used to minimize air emissions from coal (or gas derived from coal),” said Sahu.
“New coal generation flies in the face of the South African government’s obligation under international and South African law, including the South African Constitution, to take all rea- sonable measures to protect its people from the impacts of climate change,” said Sahu.
The report was commissioned by the Afri- can Climate Alliance, groundWork and Vukani Environmental Justice Movement in Action; groundWork had previously campaigned against plans to build the 600-MW Khanyisa coal-fired power station in South Africa.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 33 19•August•2021