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ENERGY

Brandenburg fires up experimental CO2 power plant

Swedish energy company Vattenfall will fire up an experimental coal power plant in Brandenburg on Tuesday with the aim of trapping the unwanted carbon dioxide emissions.

Published: 8 September 2008 18:18 CEST
Brandenburg fires up experimental CO2 power plant
Photo: DPA

It will be the first time large-scale power generation uses coal capture and sequestration (CCS) technology to keep CO2 from contributing to global warming. Vattenfall has invested around €70 million in the Schwarze Pumpe plant in Spremberg with the hopes of making coal – long out of favour because of the greenhouse gases it releases – a viable energy source again.

The plant, if successful, would be an important milestone towards producing electricity with nearly no CO2 emissions. Vattenfall is running the entire CCS chain for the pilot project – power generation by burning the abundant brown coal found in the region, filtering and liquefying the CO2 produced, and transporting and trapping it in underground storage facilities.

But the technology is not without sceptics. Tom Kirschey from the German environmental group NABU said on Monday that the safety of the underground storage had not yet been proven and that CCS can’t be the only solution towards combating climate change.

BUSINESS

France’s EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

French energy giant EDF has unveiled net profit of €10billion and cut its massive debt by increasing nuclear production after problems forced some plants offline.

Published: 16 February 2024 10:45 CET
France's EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

EDF hailed an “exceptional” year after its loss of €17.9billion in 2022.

Sales slipped 2.6 percent to €139.7billion , but the group managed to slice debt by €10billion euros to €54.4billion.

EDF said however that it had booked a €12.9 billion depreciation linked to difficulties at its Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Britain.

The charge includes €11.2 billion for Hinkley Point assets and €1.7billion at its British subsidiary, EDF Energy, the group explained.

EDF announced last month a fresh delay and additional costs for the giant project hit by repeated cost overruns.

“The year was marked by many events, in particular by the recovery of production and the company’s mobilisation around production recovery,” CEO Luc Remont told reporters.

EDF put its strong showing down to a strong operational performance, notably a significant increase in nuclear generation in France at a time of historically high prices.

That followed a drop in nuclear output in France in 2022. The group had to deal with stress corrosion problems at some reactors while also facing government orders to limit price rises.

The French reactors last year produced around 320.4 TWh, in the upper range of expectations.

Nuclear production had slid back in 2022 to 279 TWh, its lowest level in three decades, because of the corrosion problems and maintenance changes after
the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hinkley Point C is one of a small number of European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) worldwide, an EDF-led design that has been plagued by cost overruns
running into billions of euros and years of construction delays.

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