The ESB has defended its decision to invest €200 million in reducing pollution from the Moneypoint coal-fired power station on the Shannon Estuary, even though it will do nothing to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Closing down Moneypoint or converting it to run on natural gas were among the options suggested by the Government's Climate Change Strategy to meet Ireland's commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
Moneypoint is the largest single source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the State, accounting for more than five million tonnes a year. Its closure or conversion was seen by some as the "biggest hit" in complying with Kyoto.
With Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions soaring well above the limit of a 13 per cent increase on 1990 levels by 2008-2012, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, has said radical measures are needed to bring them into line.
But the ESB's plan, just lodged with Clare County Council, is confined to reducing emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) by 80 per cent and nitrogen oxide (NOX) by 50 per cent in 2008, as required by the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr Paul Mulvaney, the power station's manager, said the ESB had made "an economic decision". Though it would be possible to convert Moneypoint to run on less CO2-intensive natural gas, this would not be "economically feasible".
"This power station was designed to burn coal and it does that efficiently", he said. "Its thermal efficiency is around 38 per cent, which is pretty good for a coal-fired power station. Gas would be burned at a lower cycle efficiency." Mr Mulvaney said fuel security and diversity of supply were also critical factors. "We're already heavily reliant on natural gas, so it makes sense to keep Moneypoint because we can store a million tonnes of coal on-site, which is a six-month supply."
Conceding that the 800-megawatt station emits more than five million tonnes of CO2 annually, he said this was "a global issue, not a local issue" and needed to be looked at in the context of flexibility in complying with the Kyoto Protocol.
For example, it would be possible to engage in carbon trading once the mechanism for that is agreed by the EU next year or to finance "clean development" projects in poorer countries, thereby gaining credits to offset Ireland's CO2 emissions.
Prof John FitzGerald, of the Economic and Social Research Institute, said that if the price of CO2 was fixed at €20 per tonne under a carbon trading regime, it would still be economic "and probably sensible" to keep Moneypoint open. But this would change if the price was €40.
He said shutting down peat-fired power plants, which emit more CO2 per tonne of fuel burned, should have a higher priority as well as expanding wind power and building more gas-fired plants as a back-up when wind levels are low.
