Coal-fired Power Stations

Julian Sturdy Excerpts

Wednesday 29th June 2011 Westminster Hall

[Mr Spencer]

I will come to that point later. I should put on record that some of my constituents in Nottinghamshire travel to Warwickshire to work at Daw Mill. That we have so much coal under our feet is pertinent, as is the fact that so many constituents rely on the coal industry for employment.

I will start by outlining the current usage and how we generate power. Coal produces more than 35% of the UK’s base load of electricity during an average year. In recent winters, when the weather has been cold, that base load lifted to 50% of the supply generated by coal. That emphasises not only how dependent we are on coal, but how flexible it is, responding to the requirements of the British public. On a cold Christmas day when everyone is trying to cook their turkey at the same time, we need a great deal of flexibility in the supply chain to be able to respond. I want to touch later on the fact that, unfortunately, the wind does not blow harder on Christmas day than on any other day of the year. We need that flexibility to respond to demand.

Fossil fuels as a whole account for 80% of our energy supply: coal being 25%, gas 21% and petroleum 34%. In addition, nuclear provides 6.5%; hydro 2.2%; and biomass waste 11%. Only 0.4% of global energy demand is met by geothermal, solar and wind. Estimates suggest that world demand for coal-fired generation will increase by 70% in the period up to 2030. China is currently constructing the equivalent of two 500 MW coal-fired power stations a week, a capacity comparable to the entire UK power grid each year. Those figures are quite pertinent and put in perspective where the UK fits into a global generation market. About a third of UK electricity is generated from coal but it currently emits more CO₂ per unit of electricity than all other forms of generation. That is something we need to address.

The UK has installed electricity capacity of 77 GW. By 2016, it is expected to face a shortfall of 32 GW, as older coal, nuclear and oil plant is closed down, as demand rises. That is crucial and key to the debate today. Government policy is currently to introduce a floor price for carbon. Many of the coal-fired generators recognise that that is going to put enormous pressure to be economic on their business. In the medium to short term, it will not be possible to secure nuclear power stations that deliver the energy that we require. Generators that produce power via coal are working their units very hard to secure as much return on their investment as possible. There will be a period when our ability to generate power will be short, and the Government need to look long and hard at how we will close that gap.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones) suggested, coal is currently plentiful. It is relatively cheap, flexible and able to respond quickly. We are not prone to outages, and coal is not vulnerable to geopolitical risk. Coal generates about 40% of the world’s electricity, with about 10% each for gas and nuclear. Coal burned by major electricity generators, which account for 80% of total coal use, was up 3% in 2005. Coal burned in UK power stations was 23% higher in the third quarter of 2006 than in the same period in 2005. Coal demand is rising. That demonstrates not only how reliant on coal we are in this country, but the pertinent fact that use is increasing.

UK pits and mines are pretty efficient. We have heard about Daw Mill. Thoresby colliery in my constituency is very efficient in its coal production. I am delighted it has now had permission to explore another seam, which will secure the future of that colliery for at least the next 10 to 12 years.

Given current global energy consumption, it is estimated that there are enough recoverable coal reserves to provide the entire planet with all its energy for the next 600 years, at the current rate of usage. Britain is estimated to have 7 gigatonnes of coal left. In power stations performing carbon capture and storage, we could deliver a sustainable and reliable approach to energy production.

[Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood (Mr Spencer) for securing the debate. He is right about the importance of energy security, especially over the next 10 to 15 years. Does he agree that we need a balanced energy market and security of supply, in which, as he says, coal will play a key role? He touched on carbon capture, which will be the key way potentially to keep many of our coal-fired power stations burning and supplying energy over the short term of 10 to 15 years.

[Mr Spencer]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. That point is fundamental to the debate: coal is recognised as being flexible, but we need to embrace the technology of carbon capture and storage. That is something that I want to explore in more detail later. It is interesting that my hon. Friend touches on carbon capture and storage, because those are new clean technologies that have been proven to work. Powerfuel’s new development at Hatfield, Yorkshire, is backed by Friends of the Earth. It is a good example of how new clean coal plant can be developed and can work in practice.

I turn to the environmental side of the argument. Despite legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in 2008 91.5% of UK energy supply was met by the use of carbon-intensive fossil fuels. We need to address that figure seriously if we are to, first, meet our energy demands and, secondly, reduce this nation’s carbon footprint.

EDF Energy has said that, between now and 2016, 13 GW of coal and oil baseload plant will close. Other ageing coal plants may also close by 2016 and 7.5 GW worth of nuclear closures are scheduled by 2015. EDF Energy reached its figure of a 32 GW shortfall by factoring in the expected closures, the expected growth in demand for electricity and the expected growth in line with the renewables obligation. That figure of a 32 GW shortfall will be a terrifying one unless we find ways of plugging the gap that do not necessarily involve laying cables across the channel so that we become dependent on our near neighbours.

If the UK coal-fired power stations were replaced over time with clean coal plants, the UK would stand at the head of an energy revolution, we would be secure in our energy supply and we would also be comfortably within the environmental emissions targets. I hope that the Government can find a way to support investment in clean coal technology so that we can achieve some of those goals.

Carbon dioxide capture and storage—CCS—is the critical enabling technology that would reduce CO₂ emissions significantly while also allowing coal to meet the world’s pressing energy needs. It is important to recognise that this is a global issue. While we are considering UK energy generation, it would be foolish not to observe what is happening on the rest of planet Earth. I have already mentioned China and the number of power plants that it is producing. If we can find, develop and enhance CCS technology, we could position ourselves well in the world.