Marsden B given thumbs down by expert

The decision to allow a coal-fired power station at Marsden Pt was " just plain crazy", an energy expert says.

Professor Ralph Sims head of Massey University's centre for energy research, said while strict conditions had been imposed on the plan, the station would still be a major producer of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) - up to 2.17 million tonnes a year.

Independent commissioners - chairman Peter Salmon, QC, Gary Venus, David Hill and air quality expert Mark Goldstone - have granted approval for the mothballed Marsden B power station to fire into life using coal.

The professor said modern coal-fired power stations elsewhere in the world used clean coal technology under stringent conditions and had reasonably efficient conversion technology.

For every 100 units of coal they burn they get maybe 40 units of electricity, he said.

He understood Marsden was not even up to that level in terms of its conversion efficiency and would need more coal to produce the same amount of energy.

Professor Sims said it was madness that the commissioners could not take into account how much greenhouse gas the station would produce when considering the application.

As a result of an amendment to the Resource Management Act last year the Government decided greenhouse emissions should be dealt with nationally by a carbon charge and could not be considered during resource consent applications.

"That's my biggest concern with this. Global warming is the biggest environmental issue facing the world and it's a huge anomaly that it can't be taken into consideration," he said.

Mighty River Power, which owns the station, should forget Marsden B and instead put its money into other energy sources for Northland such as biofuels, wind or solar, he said.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)