Počerady and Tušimice II lignite plants are Czechia’s largest CO2 sources

The European Commission has released revised 2015 data on emissions allowance trading under the EU ETS. The data show that the Počerady power plant is the largest CO2 emitter in the Czech Republic. It is followed by the Tušimice II power plant and the Vřesová combined heat and power plant and combined-cycle gas turbine plant.

European Commission data show that Počerady (excluding the CCGT plant) released a total of 5.14 million tonnes of CO2, while Tušimice II emitted 4.66 million tonnes of CO2. The Vřesová combined-cycle gas turbine plant and heating plant, owned by Sokolovská uhelná, emitted 4.28 million tonnes of CO2.

Interestingly, all three of the plants mentioned recorded year-on-year growth in CO2 emissions. The Počerady power plant saw the largest increase, with its emissions rising by 8.3%. Emissions from the Tušimice power plant increased by only 1%, while those at the Vřesová plant rose by 4.4%.

Other major plants in terms of emissions include Prunéřov I, Prunéřov II, and Mělník I, Mělník II and Mělník III, whose emissions are reported separately. When added together, emissions from the Prunéřov power plant totalled 4.91 million tonnes of CO2, compared with 4.68 million tonnes of CO2 for the Mělník power plant.

A possible reason for higher electricity generation at the Vřesová plant is the generally higher utilisation of combined-cycle gas turbine plants in the Czech Republic, resulting from the prolonged outage of the Dukovany nuclear power plant and lower natural gas prices.

Emissions from the Počerady combined-cycle gas turbine plant are reported separately from Počerady’s coal-fired units. Among the top 100 largest polluters, they saw by far the largest increase in emissions volume. Year on year, emissions from the Počerady CCGT plant rose more than threefold (313%).

Electricity and heat producers dominate the ten largest CO2 emitters. A total of five of the ten polluters have electricity or heat generation as their main activity. Others in the top ten include ArcelorMittal Ostrava a.s. and Třinec Ironworks. The top ten is rounded out by Unipetrol.

German coal plants dominate Europe’s individual polluters

German coal-fired power plants dominate at the European level, taking four places in the top five. The largest polluter is probably still the Polish Bełchatów lignite power plant (note: 2015 data for the Bełchatów power plant had not been published at the time of this article’s publication; the comparison is based on 2014).

„Germany still has several large lignite power plants that operate consistently at close to full capacity. Thanks to their low generation costs, they are displacing cleaner sources of electricity generation not only in Germany but across Europe. If there are rapid measures that can ensure a reduction in CO2 emissions in the EU, it is the shutdown of these coal-fired power plants.“
Dave Jones, analyst at Sandbag

Bełchatów is joined in the top five by the Neurath, Niederaußem, Jänschwalde and Weisweiler power plants. The European top ten also includes the Schwarze Pumpe power plant, which, together with the Jänschwalde power plant, is the subject of the sale of Vattenfall’s German assets.