Europe’s hunger for coal

SCHWARZE PUMPE, Germany In the shadow of two hulking boilers, which spew 10 million tons of carbon dioxide a year into the air, the Swedish owners of this coal-fired power station recently broke ground on what is to be the world’s first coal-fired plant that produces no carbon dioxide emissions. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, presided over the ceremony.

But the new plant here, which will be just a demonstration model, pales next to the eight coal-fired power stations Germany plans to build for commercial use between now and 2011 – none of which will be free of carbon dioxide emissions.

Europe likes to think of itself as a place that has moved beyond its sooty industrial past, where its energy comes from the windmills that dot the Dutch countryside and the Danish coastline, or the carbon-free nuclear plants that dominate France’s power industry.

But with oil prices soaring and worries rising about the reliability of gas piped from Russia, Europe must depend heavily on that great industrial- age relic, coal – a cheap, plentiful fuel, but one that emits twice the carbon dioxide of natural gas. Coal-fired plants generated half the power in Germany and Britain during this year’s chilly winter.

While Europeans stand out for their commitment to controlling gases that contribute to global warming, some of their largest energy companies are reluctant to invest in technologies that could further protect the environment, like equipment in the demonstration plant here that will trap carbon dioxide and pump it into underground storage areas. Only a handful of such “carbon- free” plants are planned in the European Union.

There is another downside to coal, evident barely a mile from the plant here.

International Herald Tribune