New Italian power sites 'could double coal use': Coal association
London (Platts)--25Mar2010/702 am EDT/1102 GMT
New coal power projects planned in Italy are set to double consumption of steam coal in the country over the next five years, the president of Italy's coal association Assocarboni, Andrea Clavarino, said Thursday.
"There are Eur5 billion ($6.67 billion) of investments proposed for new coal-fired capacity or conversions that, if authorizations are given and local opposition overcome, could lead to a near-doubling in steam coal use to 30 million mt/year in five years' time," said Clavarino.
"This would improve coal's contribution to Italian power generation from 12% to 16%, and reduce our dependence on gas-fired power, which is up to 60%," he said.
The biggest and most advanced of Italy's coal projects is Enel's 2,000 MW oil-to-coal conversion of its Porto Tolle power plant in Veneto, the sister project to Enel's recently completed Civitavecchia power plant that today supplies a third of Lazio's power, Clavarino said.
Porto Tolle has environmental clearance to proceed and "should begin construction this year" if the anticipated executive decree is granted this summer, Clavarino said.
"The Eur2 billion project will take four years to complete, employ 1,000 people during construction and result in a 45% efficiency," he said. "Conversion will lead to a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions at the site."
One of the three 660 MW units at Porto Tolle is to host a demonstration carbon capture and storage plant, following the award of Eur100 million in December as part of the EU's the economic recovery program, Clavarino said.
Meanwhile German utility E.ON plans to start work this year on converting two old oil-fired groups at its Fiumesanto plant, Sardinia, to 410 MW of coal capacity, Clavarino said.
Also in the pipeline are a new 460 MW coal unit at Tirreno Power's Vado Ligure power station site, which obtained environmental impact assessment clearance last year, and SEI's 1,320 MW coal dust power plant project at Saline Joniche. Clavarino said this project was expecting environmental clearance "within the next three months," having begun the authorization procedure in June, 2008.
Assocarboni represents over 90 companies involved in the coal value chain, including producers, traders and end users.
--Henry Edwardes-Evans, henry_edwardes-evans@platts.com
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