3.3. Public power plants

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CORINAIR 1990 - Summary Report 3 - Large Point Sources

3.3. Public power plants

Overview

Public Power Plants are by far the largest source of point source emissions in Europe. A comparison of the three pollutants presented in this report shows that the biggest sources for CO₂ are not necessarily the largest contributors to SO₂ and NO_x emissions as well (see table 11).

In this chapter the ten largest LPS are given for each of the source sectors and pollutants as an example of the data available in CORINAIR 90.

Table 11: The ten largest Public Power Plants in Europe for SO₂ NO_x and CO₂

SO₂			CO₂			NO_x
Country	LPS code	Emission in tonnes	Country	LPS code¹	Emission in ktonnes	Country	LPS code¹	Emission in tonnes
Spain	0113	521 769	Poland	5902	27 716	United Kingdom	117	87 966
Bulgaria	MRI2	444 991	Greece	1	26 578	Poland	5902	87 944
Bulgaria	TVAR	421 996	Germany (f. East)	25	23 915	Greece	1	61 600
Poland	5902	402 412	Germany (f. East)	5	23 661	United Kingdom	138	47 894
Spain	0104	321 331	United Kingdom	117	22 561	United Kingdom	122	47 633
Germany (f. East)	25	316 976	Poland	2301	14 336	United Kingdom	113	46 350
United Kingdom	117	269 283	Germany (f. East)	60	12 876	United Kingdom	118	45 310
Germany (f. East)	05	265 144	United Kingdom	138	12 284	Spain	103	45 034
Germany (f. East)	22	205 480	United Kingdom	122	12 217	United Kingdom	150	42 098
Germany (f. East)	23	198 440	Germany (f. West)	80	12 137	Italy	40	40 900
Others		10 323 469	Others		971 995	Others		2 763 695
Total Public Power Plants		13 691 291	Total Public Power Plants		1 160 276	Total Public Power Plants		3 316 424

The next three chapters give a more detailed description for these top ten LPS.

SO₂

The 478 Public Power Plants >300MW are responsible for 14 million tonnes of SO₂, which is equal to 74% of all SO₂ LPS emissions.

The ranking in figure 6 shows that the ten biggest LPS are emitting 24% and the top 100 are emitting 80% of the LPS emissions of Public Power Plants >300MW.

Figure 6: The top 100 SO₂ emitting Public Power Plants in Europe

top100.gif (5639 bytes)

The largest emitting plant is located in Spain and emits more than half a million tonnes SO₂ per year, followed by plants in Bulgaria, Poland, Germany (former East) and the United Kingdom (see map 1 and table 12).

Table 12: The ten largest SO₂ emitting Public Power Plants in Europe

Rank	Country	LPS³ code	Emission in tonnes	Thermal capacity in MW_th	Main fuel	Region
1	Spain	0113	521 769	3 430	Brown coal/ lignite	Confidential
2	Bulgaria	MRI2	444 991	1 660	Residual oil	BG / Haskovo
3	Bulgaria	TVAR	421 996	3 504	Steam coal	BG / Varna
4	Poland	5902	402 412	9 999	Brown coal/ lignite	Confidential
5	Spain	0104	321 331	2 573	Sub-bituminous	Confidential
6	Germany (f. East)	25	316 976	9 999²	Not reported	Weißwasser
7	United Kingdom	117	269 283	3 890	Not reported	North Yorkshire
8	Germany (f. East)	05	265 144	8 850	Not reported	Cottbus
9	Germany (f. East)	22	205 480	2 300	Not reported	Borna
10	Germany (f. East)	23	198 440	4 720	Not reported	Görlitz
	Others		10 323 469
	Total		13 691 291

The thermal capacities differ widely for these top ten LPS, indicating that fuel consumption or utilisation rate is more important regarding emissions than the (installed) thermal capacity.

Brown Coal dominates the picture as a fuel for the largest SO₂ emitting point sources. As already mentioned Germany and the United Kingdom did not provide details on fuel consumption but one may expect that the plants in Germany (former east) also used mainly Brown Coal (see table 12). None of the top ten point sources reported a control device for SO₂ emissions.

The LPS six to ten have been notified as subject to the LCP Directive. Each is specified as an existing one, meaning that these plants started operation before 1987.

CO2

The 478 Public Power Plants >300MW are responsible for 1.2 billion tonnes CO₂, amounting to 67% of all CO₂ LPS emissions. The ranking is quite similar to that of SO₂ (see figure 7).

Figure 7: The top 100 CO₂ emitting Public Power Plants in Europe

Image7.gif (8626 bytes)

The countries with the ten largest CO₂ emitting plants are Poland, Greece, Germany (former East and West) and the United Kingdom (see map 2).

Table 13: The ten largest CO₂ emitting Public Power Plants in Europe

Rank	country	LPS code	Emission in ktonnes	Thermal capacity in MW_th	Main fuel	Region
1	Poland	5902	27 716	9 999	Brown coal/lignite	Confidential
2	Greece	1	26 578	3 515	Not reported	Kozani
3	Germany (f. East)	25	23 915	9 999²	Not reported	Weißwasser
4	Germany (f. East)	05	23 661	8 850	Not reported	Cottbus
5	United Kingdom	117	22 561	3 890	Not reported	North Yorkshire
6	Poland	2301	14 336	6 692	Brown coal/lignite	Confidential
7	Germany (f. West)	60	12 876	7 435	Not reported	Erftkreis
8	United Kingdom	138	12 284	1 974	Not reported	Nottinghamshire
9	United Kingdom	122	12 217	1 966	Not reported	West Yorkshire
10	Germany (f. West)	80	12 137	1 658	Not reported	Hamm, Kreisfreie Stadt
	Others		971 995
	Total		1 160 276

Not so much fuel data is available for the ten biggest CO₂ emitting plants in Europe. In comparison to SO₂ the second plant from Poland also uses Brown Coal as main fuel.

From the top ten LPS only Poland specified the actual rate of fuel consumption, but specified this information as confidential.

All the plants located in the EU countries (top 2 to 5 and 7 to 10) are covered by the LCP directive and reported by the countries as existing plants.

Contrary to SO₂ there are some plants among the biggest CO₂ emitting plants located in former West Germany. This reflects emission reduction activities for SO₂ in this country.

NO_x

The 478 Public Power Plants >300MW are responsible for 3.3 million tonnes of NO_x in Europe. This represents 69% of the total NO_x LPS emission reported.

The ranking again shows the same picture as for SO₂ and NO_x before (see figure 8).

Figure 8: NO_x emitting Public Power Plants in Europe

Image8.gif (8780 bytes)

Table 14: The ten largest NOx emitting Public Power Plants in Europe

Rank	Country	LPS code	Emission in tonnes	Thermal capacity in MW_th	Main fuel	Region
1	United Kingdom	117	87 966	3 890	Not reported	North Yorkshire
2	Poland	5902	87 944	9 999	Brown coal/lignite	Confidential
3	Greece	1	61 600	3 515	Not reported	Kozani
4	United Kingdom	138	47 894	1 974	Not reported	Nottinghamshire
5	United Kingdom	122	47 633	1 966	Not reported	West Yorkshire
6	United Kingdom	113	46 350	1 970	Not reported	Nottinghamshire
7	United Kingdom	118	45 310	1 971	Not reported	Humberside
8	Spain	0103	45 034	3 214	Residual oil	Confidential
9	United Kingdom	150	42 098	1 988	Not reported	Nottinghamshire
10	Italy	0040	40 900	6 597	Residual oil	Roma
	Others		2 763 695
	Total		3 316 424

^{Compared to table 12 (SO₂)
and table 13 (CO₂) two additional plants appear in table 14 and on map 3. The
main fuel of these two additional plants is Residual Oil. Five of the top ten LPS are
located in the United Kingdom. Surprisingly no German plants are among the top ten LPS.
This may be due to NO_x reduction activities such as low NO_x burner
and DENOX facilities and to the low efficiency of the plants in Germany (former east), but
this is not clear from the CORINAIR database. The Italian plant is also covered by the LCP
directive specified as existing plant.

Map 1: The ten largest SO₂ -
emitting Public Power Plants in Europe 1990

Map 2: The ten largest CO₂
- emitting Public Power Plants in Europe 1990

Map 3: The ten largest NO_X -
emitting Public Power Plants in Europe 1990

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