DRAYTON VALLEY — The massive 900-megawatt coal-fired power plant proposed by TransAlta for its Keephills site west of Edmonton will emit far more pollutants than would be allowed in the United States, Director of the Pembina Institute's Energy Watch Program, Tom Marr-Laing said today.
"The Keephills development as proposed by TransAlta will not use the best, commercially available control technologies that can significantly reduce emissions of harmful air pollutants from coal plants," says Marr-Laing. "While TransAlta is making some commitment to offset its greenhouse gas emissions, this does not compensate for increases in regional air pollution."
"We are extremely disappointed that TransAlta does not intend to minimize these emissions by using the best available technology. The company is clearly stepping away from its role as a leader in environmental stewardship," Marr-Laing added.
TransAlta's recently released Environmental Impact Assessment shows that emissions of air pollutants from the Keephills facility will increase between 60% and 100%, depending on substance. While they will meet the new Alberta standards, it appears that emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the new Keephills plant could be twice what is allowed in the recent approval for a comparable new coal-fired plant in Wyoming. This performance level can be achieved by using currently available technology to clean the gases coming from the stacks.
"No coal-fired power plant is as clean as one burning natural gas, but the 'pollution gap' between gas and the coal plants being proposed by both TransAlta and EPCOR with its Genesee 3 plant could be a lot smaller," said Mary Griffiths, environmental policy analyst for the Pembina Institute.
Griffiths indicated that it is possible to burn coal with almost no particulate or sulphur dioxide emissions by first turning the coal into gas and then burning the coal gas. Several such Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle plants now exist in the U.S. and Europe, and they are becoming commercially feasible. "If Alberta had the stricter standards found in the U.S. and some other countries, companies would be required to use the best technology to reduce emissions," Griffiths said. "But in Alberta's deregulated market the focus is on producing power at the lowest cost rather than minimizing risk to the environment and human health."
The Pembina Institute believes that Alberta's growing energy requirements can be met through investments in energy efficiency and by concentrating expansion on renewable energy such as wind, and the development of efficient gas-fired power plants, particularly co-generation facilities.
For more information contact:
Tom Marr-Laing
Director, Energy Watch Program, Pembina Institute
Cell: 780-621-2472
Email: thomasml@pembina.org
Mary Griffiths
Policy Analyst, Pembina Institute
Office: 780-433-6675
Email: maryg@pembina.org
For more information please see the backgrounder for this news release.
Read the Appendix: A Comparison of Combustion Technologies for Electricity Generation
Download the 12-page Appendix as a pdf file (95 KB)
