Proposed coal plants in Europe

Overview
According to a November 2012 working paper released by the World Resources Institute, there are 69 proposed coal plants totalling 65,421 MW in Europe (excluding Russia). The paper estimated that an additional 26,000 to 48,000 MW of coal-fired electrical generating capacity will also be added in Russia by 2030, but did not list project names or locations.

Table 1 (sortable): Proposed coal plants in Europe (excluding Russia)
The following table provides a preliminary list of proposed coal plants in Europe (excluding Russia). Most locations are from the CARMA database. In cases where locations were not available from CARMA, latitude and longitude were derived by locating the nearest village, town, or city to the plant, using iTouchMap.com. Names are derived from the appendices provided in WRI's "Global Coal Risk Assessment" working paper.

Table columns may be sorted by clicking on the header.

Schwarzenegger clause
In October 2008, the European Parliament's Environment Committee voted to support a limit on CO2 emissions for all new coal plants built in the EU after 2015. The so-called "Schwarzenegger clause" applies to all plants with a capacity over 300MW, and limits their annual CO2 emissions to a maximum of 500 grammes per kilowatt hour. The new emissions standard essentially rules out traditional coal plant technologies and mandates the use of Carbon Capture and Storage technologies. The Committee also adopted an amendment to support the financing of 12 large-scale commercial CCS demonstration projects, at a cost that could exceed €10 billion.

Estimated cost of air pollution in Europe
A 2011 analysis by the European environment agency (EEA), 'Revealing the costs of air pollution from industrial facilities in Europe,' estimated that air pollution from industry was costing Britain £3.4bn-£9.5bn a year in health and environmental damage. When CO2 costs were included, the figure rose to £9.5bn-£15.5bn. The industrial facilities covered by the analysis included large power plants, refineries, manufacturing combustion and industrial processes, waste and certain agricultural activities. Emissions from power plants contributed the largest share of the damage costs (estimated at €66–112 billion). Other significant contributions to the overall damage costs came from production processes (€23–28 billion) and manufacturing combustion (€8–21 billion). Sectors excluded from the EEA analysis include transport, households and most agicultural activities – if these were included the cost of pollution would be even higher.

The analysis found that a small number of individual facilities cause the majority of damage costs. Three quarters of the total damage costs were caused by the emissions from just 622 industrial facilities – 6 % of the total number. The facilities with emissions associated with a high damage cost are in most cases some of the largest facilities in Europe which release the greatest amount of pollutants. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions contribute the most to the overall damage costs, approximately €63 billion in 2009. Other air pollutants, which contribute to acid rain and can cause respiratory problems - sulphur dioxide (SO2), ammonia (NH3), particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) - were found to cause €38-105 billion of damage a year.

Reports

 * Emily Rochon, "Coal-fired Power Stations and the European Union", Greenpeace International, November 29, 2007. (This report is a 1MB PDF file).

Europe and coal

 * Austria and coal
 * Belgium and coal
 * Bulgaria and coal
 * France and coal
 * Germany and coal
 * Greece and coal
 * Hungary and coal
 * Italy and coal
 * Netherlands and coal
 * Norway and coal
 * Poland and coal
 * Romania and coal
 * Slovakia and coal
 * United Kingdom and coal

Other Countries and Coal

 * Global use and production of coal
 * Australia and coal
 * China and Coal
 * Colombia and coal
 * Indonesia and coal
 * Japan and coal
 * New Zealand and coal
 * South Africa and coal
 * United States and coal

Background information

 * International Energy Agency, "Coal in European Union - 27 in 2005", International Energy Agency website, accessed June 2008.
 * U.S. Geological Survey, Europe and Central Eurasia 1995-2005
 * U.S. Geological Survey, Germany 1994-2005
 * European Environment Agency, European Pollutant Emission Register. (This has a list of power stations and their current emissions).

Articles on Coal in Europe

 * "Coal-fired power station projects in Europe", Reuters, May 14, 2007.
 * Matthew Lockwood, After the Coal Rush: Assessing policy options for coal-fired electricity generation, Institute for Public Policy Research, July 2008. (Pdf). See also "ippr calls for UK to lead a two year Europe-wide freeze on new coal-fired power stations", Institute for Public Policy Research, Media Release, July 2, 2008.
 * "Coal-fired power generation makes a comeback as gas prices soar", Platts, January 17, 2006.
 * "Progress tracker for German power plant projects", Reuters, May 16, 2008.

Other

 * "Coal plans in Europe," Fairfin