Longannet on List of Worst-Polluting Power Stations

 

May 10 - Herald, The; Glasgow (UK)

LONGANNET in Fife has been named on the list of the most- polluting power stations in Europe. The plant, owned by ScottishPower, is ranked 15th in the "Dirty Thirty" for carbon dioxide emissions.

A report assembled by the World Wildlife Fund revealed that the two dirtiest power stations in the EU are in Greece. The Longannet plant is the only one in Scotland to make the list.

Ten of the 30 biggest emitters of carbon dioxide in Europe are in the UK and the combined emissions from these power stations increased by nearly 8per cent last year, according to the report.

The biggest polluter in the UK was the Drax station near Selby in Yorkshire, which is twice the size of any other in the UK and released 23 million tonnes in 2006, up 10per cent on the previous year. The other biggest polluters were Longannet and EDF Energy's Cottam station, which each emitted more than 10 million tonnes of CO 2.Levels of emissions from Longannet and Cottam increased by more than 20per cent between 2005 and 2006.

The 30 plants on the list are all coal-fired and produced 393 million tonnes of heattrapping CO 2emissions in the EU. "The facts are clear in that the power sector needs to phase out dirty coal as soon as possible, " said Stephan Singer, head of WWF's European Climate and Energy Unit.

ScottishPower last night hit back at Longannet's ranking and disputed some of the figures used by the WWF.

A spokesman said: "Longannet meets the most stringent air quality standards set by the EU authorities.

"We are concerned by the figures quoted in the report as ScottishPower's independently verified data states that the intensity of Longannet emissions is 890 grams per kwh versus the WWF figure of 970 grams per kwh."

The culprits

CO2 emissions of the worst five British plants on the WWF list

Millions of tonnes

Station Company 2005 2006 per cent change

Drax Drax Power 20,771,624 22,764,847 +9.6per cent

Longannet ScottishPower 8,417,779 10,126,655 +20.3per cent

Cottam EDF 8,068,565 10,029,024 +24.3per cent

Didcot A+B RWE NPower 9,304,881 9,504,880 +2.1per cent

Kingsnorth E.ON 7,766,631 8,915,967 +14.8per cent

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