Lignite power plants and open-cast mining

These installations collectively emit 57 million tons of CO2/a. Lignite is employed both from the company’s own mines and from the MIBRAG mining corporation near Leipzig.

CO2 allowance purchases reduces real profit

Despite an enviable sales record at MIBRAG, the two American owners, NRG Energy and URS Corporation, sold the operations to a Czech-Slovak consortium in 2009 after CO2 allowance purchases of 28 million euro the previous year had largely depleted operating profits. Superseding emissions trading by CCS technologies would nevertheless be too expensive unless current exchange prices (ranging from 7.98 to 15.41 euro/t CO2 in 2009) proved greatly undervalued.

How to reduce emissions with new carbon power plants

Green Budget Germany, an organization of government-contracted economists, has issued a pessimistic appraisal of fossil-fuel generation. At present, 29 coal and lignite power plants are being constructed or planned without provisions for CO2 capture. With a service life of 40 years, these installations could prevent Germany from achieving the 80% to 95% greenhouse gas reductions recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for industrial societies by 2050. Referred to the one billion tons of CO2 emitted in 1990, the atmospheric carbon released by 175 million tons of lignite would accordingly exclude all other fossil fuel usage in Germany, an untenable assumption. Guest article from Jefffrey H. Michel