ASSOCARBONI INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COAL OPERATORS
In primo piano
Da non perdere
New coal-fired power
projects planned in Italy could double consumption of steam coal over the next
five years, president of Italy's coal Association Andrea Clavarino told Platts
on March 25. "There are Euro5 billion of investments proposed for new
coal-fired capacity or conversions that, if authorizations are given and local
opposition overcome, could lead to a near-doubling in steam coal use to 30
million tons/yr in five years' time," Clavarino said in an interview.
"This would improve coal's contribution to Italian power generation from
12% to 16%, and reduce our dependence on gas-fired power, which is up to
60%." The biggest and most advanced of Italy's coal projects is Enel's
2,000-MW oil-to-coal conversion of its Porto Tolle power plant, the sister
project to Enel's recently completed Civitavecchia power plant that today
supplies a third of Lazio region's power, Clavarino said. On March 20, Enel
chief executive Fulvio Conti and the president of Veneto region, Giancarlo
Galan, signed an agreement for the project to proceed. All other permits are in
place and the project "should begin construction this year" following
an executive decree from the relevant minister in July, Clavarino said.
"The Euro 2 billion project will take four years to complete, employ 1,000
people during construction and result in a 45% efficiency," he said.
"Conversion will lead to a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions at the site."One of the three
converted 660-MW units at Porto Tolle is to host a demonstration carbon capture
and storage plant, following the award last December of Euro100 million from
the EU's economic recovery program, Clavarino said. "The project is very
sound and is financially workable with [Enel] own resources [plus the EU
subsidy]. They will be going ahead with it for operation in 2015."
Meanwhile E.ON plans to start work this year on converting two old 160-MW
oil-fired groups at its Fiumesanto plant, Sardinia, to 410-MW of coal capacity,
he said. Also in the pipeline are a new 460-MW coal unit at Tirreno Power's
Vado Ligure power station site (this project obtained environmental impact
assessment clearance last year), and SEI's 1,320-MW coal dust power plant
project at Saline Joniche, Calabria. This project would be carbon capture-ready.
Clavarino said the SEI project was expecting environmental clearance
"within the next three months," having begun the authorization
procedure in June, 2008. SEI is a consortium of Ratia Energia, Hera, Foster
Wheeler and Apri Sviluppo. Dome for Brindisi Nord Meanwhile Edipower is
planning to build a dome this year to cover the coal bunker at its 640-MW
Brindisi Nord power plant, Clavarino said. "This is going to be similar to
the one at Civitavecchia, which cost Euro30 million. I believe these domes are
unique to Italy. Once the panamax is in dock, you don't see any coal - all
conveyor belts are sealed and covered and coal goes into the warehouse or
directly into the boiler. There is no sight of the coal, no dust and reduced
noise." Beyond this, Edipower is to install new desulphurization plant at
its Brindisi facility. "I think we're going back to sound projects that
can be built by the operator," Clavarino said, in a reference to
statefunded renewables programs. "These coal projects are needed to
diversify Italian power, we don't have the regasification capacity [to secure
reliable gas supply for CCGTs]. Europe can receive around 50% of its gas from
LNG vessels, but for Italy it is about 12% - our consumption is 85 billion cu m
and we have regas capacity of about 10 billion cu m." While added
regasification capacity might reduce dependency on pipeline gas, this would not
reduce costs, Clavarino said: "Italy's manufacturing base is the second
largest in Europe after Germany - but the cost of Italian wholesale power is on
average 30% more expensive than in Germany. We've got to get the cost base down
for industry." Oil-to-coal conversion, displacing gas, is the quickest
route to lower costs, he noted. According to Italian energy regulator AEEG,
current production costs are 2.18 Euro cents/kWh from coal, 5.51 cents/kWh from
oil and 6.34 cents/kWh from natural gas. If Italian power plants used as much
coal as the rest of Europe, fuel costs would decrease by 10%, Clavarino
concluded. The economics are clear. The challenge remains in the permitting and
perception of these schemes. Porto Tolle has taken ten years to reach final
clearance. All the Italian projects have been targeted by environmentalists and
local objectors. The risk of 'locking in' CO2 emissions in pre-carbon capture
development is a common theme in European policy circles. It remains to be seen
whether Assocarboni’s outlook is achievable, and Italy can join Germany as the
only west Europeans adding significant pre-CCS coal capacity.
Safe "Riscoperta e valorizzazione del carbone" Rome, May 5th 2010 Piazza G. Marconi, 15 UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe 5th Session of the UNECE Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity Production from Coal and Other Fossil Fuels Geneve, May 11th 2010
