Still dirty... Flickr/Martin. Some rights reserved.
In the UK, a new coal fired power station is being developed by Drax that, if built, would be the first new coal fired power station to be switched on since Drax’s existing power station opened in 1974. This is surprising given that there were mass protests against new coal in the UK that saw a whole new generation of coal fired power stations stopped in their tracks. Yet plans for Drax's new "White Rose" power station are proceeding largely unopposed. This is because, as will be discussed below, the UK public has been fooled by the rhetoric of “clean coal”, “bioenergy with carbon capture and storage”, and “negative emissions”
The White Rose Carbon Capture Project is a proposed 428 MWe power station capable of burning both coal and biomass, that developers say will capture 90% of the carbon it emits, and store it safely under the North Sea. According to Drax, it will co-fire up to 15% wood with coal. But it will in fact be allowed to burn any proportion of coal and wood. The power station will use “Oxyfuel Combustion”, one of a number of different carbon capture technologies that extracts some of the CO2 coming out of the smokestack.
