(Untitled)

[peekay]

So I heard on Triple J this morning that Eraring power station puts out 18 million tonnes of carbon a year. Where do people come up with this shit? Port Waratah Coal Services, the world's biggest coal port, exports 90 million tonnes of coal a year. So the world's biggest coal port can only support 5 power stations? Bollocks. I'm not saying that the

Comments

[magenta_babylon]

Good old triple J, never let the facts get in the way of a good scare campaign :P

Ask Ten how much it puts out, his Dad works there and Ten did the tour on family day. Has the tea towel and everything

[peekay]

Not a bad idea actually, might have to do that...

[tendrils]

Heh, she beat me to it! Damnit!

I don't know facts, but they're very environmentally conscious (using sewage [though micro-filtered, obviously] for the boilers, etc) and Eraring is one of the least environmentally polluting power stations in the world, as far as I know, though I'd definitely have to research more to back that up.
Even the location was very, very well thought out - located in a natural depression, not visible (except for the top of the stacks) from any road or residence.

[bumbklaatt]

Whilst not an expert on any of this, I don't think 1 tonne of coal = 1 tonne of carbon emissions.

And to be fair, it's unlikely should the information be a lie, that Triple J would actively make it up. It's more likely they were fed the incorrect information by Australian Associated Press, or another media organisation.

[tokificent]

Agreed.

[peekay]

Yeah I wasn't specifically pissed at TripleJ, I've got no idea where they got their info from, hell for all I know it could've been from reading the SMH where the story was also published (I found out later), I was just pissed that it came out at all, Eraring really does try to do it's bit for the environment (although given that it is a coal-fired power-plant, it's bit is never going to be huge ;p) and I don't like it getting bagged out in the media.

[tendrils]

Power Stations in NSW definitely do sell power to other states... Eraring running at full capacity can power 3/4 of the entire power requirements state or eastern seaboard - I can't remember which.

And yes, Eraring never runs at full capacity... when I was there they only had two of four turbines running at about 60% capacity - though it was a mild day in the middle of the day.

It also holds a world record for continuous power plant (turbine) operation - over 1 year without having to be taken offline for maintenance!

http://www1.hnehealth.nsw.gov.au/hneph/EHM/Eraring.htm has some info on emissions, etc

[chunkyy]

It is entirely meaningless to list the carbon emmiting stations in order from most to least without comparing it to how much the power plants actually produce.

[dawesius]

1 metric tonne of black coal will produce approximately 2.6 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (Hong and Slatick, 1994).

Granted, not all coal ex-newcastle harbour is bound for steaming coal, but much of it is (85%). Australia's black coal is among some of the best in the world, also, we just produce shite loads more of it than anyone else, and pretty cheaply to boot.

Eraring power station claims to utilise 6 million tonnes of coal p/a for its 4 turbines, which stabs out at 15.6Mt pa, thats within 15%, so throw in some allied costs from ancillary services, differences in burning behaviour and a bit of rounding and your pretty spot on.

[peekay]

I know I'm being pedantic here, but they did say carbon, not carbon dioxide, or even carbon emissions. Mind you the person who writes the news isn't going to be an expert on it, so they're not always going to use the correct terminology. I just got pissed off, because (considering that they're a coal-fired power-plant and it's not in their best interest to go greenie) Eraring is a very environmentally-conscious power station, and I get the shits when they get thrown to the dogs in the media. Ergo, this was a rage-post ;p