Dr. Tony WrightTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what were(a) the total annual emissions in kilotonnes and (b) the emissions per unit of electricity generated, in g/kWh, of (i) carbon dioxide, (ii) sulphur dioxide, (iii) oxides of nitrogen, (iv) hydrogen chloride, (v) dust and (vi) other substances, for the last 10 years from each of the coal or gas-fired power stations in the United Kingdom. [22860]
§ Angela EagleI have placed the tables which provide the data requested insofar as they are available in the Library of the House. The data have been obtained primarily from records held by the Environment Agency in England and Wales, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Northern Ireland Department of the Environment. Where there are gaps in the data from Agency sources, they have been filled in a number of ways.
Data have also been obtained from reports published by the power generators, and from correspondence between those companies and the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. In some cases emissions have been estimated by combining reported or derived fuel use estimates and aggregate emission factors. Where carbon dioxide emissions were not recorded they have been estimated using the relationship with the emissions of oxides of nitrogen.
There are still many gaps in the tables. For the most part, this is because many power stations have closed down during the last ten years while others have opened only relatively recently. In other cases, such as for many of the pollutants in 1988, no data were recorded and no estimates can be made. Finally, emissions for some pollutants from stations fuelled by certain fuels are not considered significant and are not included in the tables, e.g. data are recorded for hydrogen chloride from coal fired stations only.
Particulate matter emissions have been reported in place of those requested for "dust", as the former is what is actually measured. Gas fired power stations do not emit significant quantities of particulate matter and therefore do not figure in the tables for this pollutant.
541WNo other pollutant data are regularly collected for each power station, and therefore no tables have been provided for "other substances".