By Miquelaa Fernando
With all that is happening in the world; an epidemic virus, losing Kobe Bryant, floods and wildfires, it is easy to forget that Sri Lanka is on the brink of building four controversial new power plants. In an attempt to make up for lost time, the Cabinet has approved several power plants to be fast tracked for implementation, including two new 300MW coal power plants and two new 300MW LNG power plants. The only good news for environmentalists would be the nearly 100 million USD planned to focus on renewable sources of energy. The past few weeks have shown several contradictions in the Government’s approach to environmental management.
One of the main points of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s manifesto was working towards sustainable environmental management. His government pledged “to ensure that the environment is protected in all our development plans. This will ensure that future generations are handed over a country that is not polluted. We shall bring about amendments to existing laws, and if necessary new legislation will be introduced in order to strengthen and protect our forest cover, rivers, streams and wildlife.” This seems to be a blinding contradiction to the urgent building of these power plants. Were proper assessments on the impact to the environment done on these power plants? Another large coal power plant would also be in contravention to an announcement this month from the President’s Office that Sri Lanka will aim for 80% renewable energy by 2030.
Serious environmental concerns have been voiced. The Government however seems to be at odds with itself, announcing this week that a new power plant will be built every two years, but the focus of our national day will be an island-wide tree planting campaign. To calculate the carbon dioxide emissions of a typical coal power plant would be; Annual CO2 (in million tonnes) = capacity * capacity factor * heat rate * emission factor * 9.2427 x 10^-12. For example, for a typical coal plant: Size: 1,000 MW, Capacity factor: 80%, Supercritical combustion heat rate: 8863 Btu/kWh, Sub-bituminous coal emission factor: 96,100 kg of carbon dioxide per TJ.
This would amount to an annual CO2 emission of 6.30 million tonnes(1,000 * .8 * 8863 * 96,100 * 9.2427 * 10^-12). On the other hand, a typical hardwood tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. This means it will sequester approximately 1 ton of carbon dioxide by the time it reaches 40 years old. Based on these parameters, in a year, we would need to plant an estimated 2.2 million trees, to mitigate the carbon emission from only the 900MW Norochcholai coal power plant.
The two LNG power plants are no better. LNG is cleaner than coal in terms of carbon emissions and toxic pollutants but extraction, processing and shipping the gas in liquid form is an emissions-intensive exercise. Burning LNG in power plants produces roughly 40 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared with black coal. Still, LNG’s overall advantage is heavily dependent on the CO2 content of the gas field and the efficiency of the coal-fired power plant it is being compared with.
It is without a doubt that as we continue to develop and our population continues to increase, the demand for more electricity will grow extensively, and everyone deserves the privilege of electricity. The Government will have to make hard decisions, weighing the benefits to the population in the short term, with the benefits to the world in the long term. However, we can no longer ignore the growing signs of climate change, with Sri Lanka predicted to be one of the worst affected countries from climate change. We do not seem to have the privilege of developed countries, to pollute first and then clean up our mess. The government should ensure that an environmental policy is integrated into every aspect of our development plan, or we will pay thrice-fold in the years to come. Sri Lanka truly has the chance and the potential to be revolutionary in the way we develop, we can only hope that our leaders recognise the warning signs before it is too late.
