Row over plan to build coal power plant

A decision is expected within weeks about whether Britain is to build the first coal-fired power station for more than 20 years - potentially unleashing a new generation of coal power.

Planning officials are considering an application from Eon to build a new coal-fired station in Kent, which could supply 1.5 million homes. The decision is being watched by power companies considering at least three more coal-fired projects, and government officials forecast up to eight could be built by 2020.

The move will be welcomed by groups worried about replacing Britain's ageing power supply as demand continues to grow, and about over-reliance on imported gas or wind energy.

However, environmental groups claim a new generation of coal-fired power stations will make Britain miss tough targets to reduce CO2 emissions, and set a bad example to the rest of the world, particularly China, which is building two coal-powered generators a week.

German-owned Eon, one of Britain's biggest generators, has submitted plans for a 1.6 gigawatt coal plant alongside its Kingsnorth station in Kent, which is due to close in 2015, when tough new emissions standards come into force.

Eon, which has two other coal-fired stations, has just submitted its final report to Medway council in Kent and hopes to receive the planning authority's recommendation in September or October. It will also need the go-ahead from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, formerly the Department of Trade and Industry.

The application is being watched by developers of three other new coal schemes. RWE Npower, another German-owned company, is considering two new coal-fired generators at Tilbury in Essex and Blyth in Northumberland. Scottish and Southern Energy is doing a feasibility study into replacing one of two units at its Ferrybridge power station in Yorkshire, which were due to go out of service in 2015.

By 2020, the government's energy white paper forecasts between four and eight new coal-fired power stations could be opened, depending on carbon and coal prices. All new stations will be built ready to fit 'carbon capture and storage', but there is no firm date by which it will be ready, and a government-funded trial is only expected to start in 2011-14.

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace said even with new, more efficient technology, which reduces carbon emissions by 20 per cent, the new power stations could wipe out most or all carbon reductions from building new nuclear power stations, also favoured by government.

'If they go ahead with these coal-fired stations, and only have one nuclear station by 2020, and they are not giving enough support to renewables, there's no way they are going to hit targets,' said Greenpeace director John Sauven.

However, government officials and the energy companies defended the decision to use more coal power, saying it would help fill the looming 'energy gap' when old nuclear and coal plants are closed.

An Eon spokesman said the new plants could also help Britain develop carbon-capture and storage technology, which could be exported, helping to reduce global emissions.

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