President of Green action Bernard Ivčić said today that this environmental protection organization will do everything they can to stop the construction of thermal power plant (TPP) Plomin C that uses coal.
Membership in the European Union (EU), can help Croatia to be forced to invest in smart energy solutions. If we invest “in dirty projects and industry, we must pay the penalty, and therefore such projects will become financially unviable,” said Ivčić at a seminar on sustainable management of renewable natural resources.
Another problem, he said, is “that those who make decisions now count on not being in power at the time when we will have to pay all that, so they really do not care.” Green action opposes the construction of the Plomin C for many reasons, mainly due to a negative impact on the health and economic system, he said. Ivčić argues that the study of the environmental impact was done for the area covering only 20 kilometers around Plomin, although the impact area of the TPP is much broader and they did not count in the cumulative effect of all pollutants in this area. He recalled that the project is contrary to the Spatial Plan of Istria, which stipulates that the new TPP will have 125 MW of power and will be fueled by gas, while this project provides power of 500 MW and coal as fuel.
Ivčić warned that Europe is giving up on the construction of TPP fueled bycoal since it would not be viable and due to public opposition.
“If you build TPP Plomin C fueled by coal, it will operate by 2060 or 2065 and the 15 years before it stops working, more than half of the permitted emissions for the whole of Croatia will be emitted from it. It is likely that – if you make this TPP – that Croatia would exceed allowable emissions, and if that happens, we will have to pay the penalty, and the project will be financially unviable, “said Ivčić. Even though, he added, electricity import would decrease in the case of construction of the Plomin C the amount of imported coal would increase.
“Instead Plomin C, it is better to make a more efficient system. Croatia consumes 20 percent more energy per unit of GDP than the EU average, so there is plenty of room for the establishment of a more efficient system, and losses in the distribution of electricity in Croatia are 17 to 18 percent, and 10 percent smaller in the EU” said Ivčić. He also noted that Croatia has very little installed capacity in renewable energy sources, even though they have great potential.
Green action today in conjunction with the Association of Environmental Journalists of the Croatian Journalists’ Association organized a seminar for journalists on the sustainable management of renewable natural resources within the project “SURE NaRe – Sustainable use of renewable natural resources” funded by the European Commission through the IPA 2009.
The two main topics of the seminar were the biodiversity with special emphasis on the problem of bee colonies disappearance and air with special reference to the problem of TPP Plomin C.
Professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture Nikola Kezić and Damir Rogulja from the Association “Bee Hive” talked about the importance of bees to maintain biodiversity and warned of the vulnerability and mortality of colonies, mainly due to pesticides.
Dr. Agnes Gajdics from the Environmental Law and Management Association – EMLA from Hungary also spoke about the air, especially on EU emission units trading scheme, geological disposal of CO2 and coal as an energy source. She said that she was against any TPP fueled by coal because she believes that they should invest more in renewable energy.
Source Serbia Energy/SEE Desk
