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Environmentalists scoff at CEB’s ‘clean coal’ policy in energy parks
The Power and Energy Ministry has sought Cabinet approval to block off 511 acres of land at Foul Point in Trincomalee to build an “energy park” that includes a 600 megawatt coal power plant.
A suitable Government-owned area has already been marked off by the Survey Department, says the Cabinet paper signed by Power and Energy Minister Ravi Karunanayake. Those holding permits, grants and deeds will have the option of leasing their properties to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). If they do not agree, it is proposed to take over the properties through the Land Acquisition Act.
The Ministry wants immediate handover of the identified area to the CEB so that “low cost power plants” could be speedily constructed to solve the power crisis as well as financial issues in the CEB and its fuel supplier, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). The shortage of electricity is due to non-implementation of major power plants in the CEB’s Long Term Generation Expansion Plan (LTGEP), it says.
The memorandum observes that in April last year the Cabinet decided two-thirds of the country’s electricity will come from “firm energy sources” such as petroleum fuels and large hydro resources. The share was to be 30 percent natural gas, 30 percent coal, 25 percent hydro and 15 percent furnace oil.
It says the Government has also chosen to establish only environment-friendly high efficient coal power plants using “clean coal technology”. It is, therefore, proposed to set up a 600mw “clean coal-based high efficient coal power plant” at Foul Point in Trincomalee. Another 600mw plant of similar specifications is to be set up at Norochcholai in Puttalam.
The ministry also wants land to set up forested buffer zones around the power plants, ostensibly to reduce the carbon footprint of the electricity sector. But environmentalists say it is not possible to carry out carbon sequestration–a natural or artificial process by which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and held in solid or liquid form–for coal power plants by planting trees.
The Cabinet paper claims that a ministerial committee headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has recommended expediting establishment of coal, diesel/heavy fuel oil, natural gas, wind, solar, mini hydro and biomass power plants listed in the LTGEP. It says these recommendations were approved in June this year.
It is, therefore, planned to establish eight energy parks in Kerawalapitiya, Norochcholai, Pooneryn, Siyambalanduwa, Mannar, Sampur, Hambantota and Foul Point. The total acreage required would be around 9,078 acres with the largest one being in Pooneryn (6,000 acres) and the smallest in Hambantota (55 acres).
Natural gas plants are planned for Kerawalapitiya; wind, solar and coal power is proposed for Norochcholai; solar and wind power for Pooneryn; solar for Siyambalanduwa; wind for Mannar; solar for Sampur; natural gas for Hambantota; and coal and natural gas for Foul Point.
The Government wants to move ahead with coal, an option the CEB strongly favours. But experts say that the term “environmental friendly high efficient coal plant based on clean coal technology” is oxymoronic and ambiguous term. They also say coal plant efficiency ranges from 34 percent, which is the data for Norochcholai, to 50 percent.
The cabinet paper touts natural gas plants in Kerawalapitiya, Foul Point and Hambantota. “This requires Sri Lanka to build LNG (liquefied natural gas) regassification plants in all three areas,” said environment expert Vidhura Ralapanawe. “This is exceptionally stupid and expensive.”
He also said carbon sequestration through planting trees in the buffer zone was impractical due to sheer scale of carbon emissions from coal power plants. “Assuming a 30 year growth rate, it would take 180 hectares of trees to offset carbon emitted in one day for each power plant,” he claimed. “Each power plant would need to forest 65,700 hectares of land annually to offset the same. This is more than twice the size of Udawalawe National Park per power plant per year.”
“Thus, he said, “for the two power plants, assuming a 30-year lifetime, it would require a reforestation area equal to half of Sri Lanka’s landmass.”