The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has made special mention of the Callide A power station as an example of an old dirty polluter, despite the fact it was converted into a world-leading low emissions coal demonstration project years ago.
The power station, near Biloela, was cited as one of the reasons why it’s owner, CS Energy, made it to the Foundation’s list of Australia’s top 10 biggest climate polluters.
The ACF claims that companies on their top 10 list, including Rio Tinto, Woodside Petroleum and Alcoa Mining, were responsible for, “nearly on third of Australia’s greenhouse pollution.”
The ACF ‘s President, Geoff Cousins, explained why companies operating coal-fired power plants were dominant on the list.
“The problem isn’t electricity, which is an essential service we all use, but the way most of our electricity is generated in Australia,” Mr Cousins said.
“Some of Australia’s coal-fired power plants are highly polluting, inefficient old rust buckets that are well past their use-by dates.
“Hazelwood in Victoria, AGL’s Lidell in NSW and Callide A in Queensland are all more than 40 years old. In fact Hazelwood, owned by GDF Suez, was once rated the dirtiest power station in the developed world.”
However, while the Callide A power station was indeed built in 1965, it was refurbished in 2008 to make way for the Callide Oxyfuel project, a world leading carbon capture technology demonstration project. After two years of successful operation the project was completed earlier this month. According to CS Energy, during those two years the project successfully proved 10,000 hours of oxyfuel combustion and 5,500 hours of carbon capture.
Add Comment