Clean energy expect says Fonterra should ditch coal

Clean energy and bioenergy expert John Gifford says that Fonterra should be looking beyond coal and exploring alternatives for its milk powder plants. Photo / Supplied

Clean technology: Last month, Waikato Regional and District Councils issued consents to approve the 120,000 tonnes per year Mangatangi open-cast coal mine at Mangatawhiri in the northern Waikato region. The coal mine, which will be operated by Fonterra subsidiary Glencoal, will be open for eight years and provide a total of 700,000 tonnes of coal to be burned at three milk-drying plants in Waitoa, Te Awamutu and Hautapu.

Clean energy and bioenergy expert John Gifford, who was called to the consent hearing as an expert witness by Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA), says that Fonterra should be looking beyond coal and exploring alternatives for its milk powder plants.

Gifford, the former Chairman of the Bioenergy Association of New Zealand and former Scion employee, currently consults on forestry, forest products, biomaterials and bioenergy. He says using coal is unnecessary and the dairy processing plants could instead be powered by sustainable wood fuels.

"What I was suggesting [at the hearing] was that, over a period of time, Fonterra could look at a strategy where they started introducing this material and eventually they would get the encouragement and confidence to continue and ultimately replace coal-powered boilers."

According to Gifford, up to 15 per cent of felled trees lie in situ and go to waste. This material could be picked up, chipped and dried (to create a lower moisture content) and either mixed with coal in the short term or used as a standalone fuel. It would also provide jobs in the burgeoning bioenergy industry.

Last week, the Bioenergy Association of New Zealand held a wood fuel conference in Rotorua supported by organisations including Fonterra, The Ministry of Primary Industries and EECA.

Gifford said that initially there might be a larger upfront cost to purchasing bulk-scale wood, but this cost would diminish once the scale of the operation was developed. "If a company like Fonterra were to stage the introduction, then they could manage the capital costs sensibly and pragmatically. Ultimately, you'd hopefully get to the point where you build up a supply chain, bring down the costs and the whole wood-fuel situation completely substitutes for the coal. And the greenhouse gas emissions arising from that are completely eliminated," he said.

Gifford says that Scandanavia is taking the lead on renewable and wood-based energy and both the UK and the US are moving to wood as a substitute for coal. In New Zealand many schools and hospitals are looking into replacing coal-powered boilers with pellet and wood boilers. Waiouru Military Camp turned their coal-fired boiler into the largest wood pellet-fired boiler in the country, slashing 5300 tonnes of coal annually.

"Where companies are concerned about greenhouse gas emissions, where there are issues around emission targets or carbon certifications then increasingly companies are having to look at greenhouse gas mitigation strategies. If they do, then they have to get out of coal and into renewable resources. Biomass is generally the most cost-effective way," states Gifford.

Speaking at the hearing, Auckland Action spokesperson Geoff Mason said: "One of the main shortfalls in the consent which has been granted for the mine is that it doesn't specify that ambient air quality monitoring be carried out for the life of the mine, but only for a minimum of three months. This is despite the fact that Glencoal's own expert Chilton recommended monitoring during the period the mine is active."

Mason also noted that Glencoal had omitted data for exceeding Boron levels in the discharge from their water treatment at the present mine. "Glencoal's water quality model at the hearing was based on this incomplete data."

Ora Taiao, the New Zealand Climate and Health Council, also submitted against the proposed coal mine emphasising the direct effects of coal on the health and wellbeing of miners. Impacts of mining include lung disease from exposure to coal dust, the introduction of heavy metals and toxins from exposed water into rainwater, the release of other toxic elements such as mercury, arsenic and cadmium when coal is burnt and the impacts of particulate matter produced as a result of combustion to human health.

Fonterra's national consents manager David Wright says the mine's footprint will be "very small" and will have a life of less than 10 years.

Coal and climate change:
43 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion are caused by coal (compared with 36 per cent from oil and 20 per cent from gas).

The burning of coal creates more emissions per unit of energy produced when compared with oil or gas.

In 2012, about half of New Zealand's industrial use of coal was used for the dairy industry.

According to the Australian Climate Commission's report 'The Critical Decade', the burning of fossil fuels represents the most significant contributor to climate change. It states that between now and 2050 we can emit no more than 600 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to have a good chance of staying within the 2°C limit. "Global GHG emissions must peak by 2017 to retain even a 50% chance of limiting the average global temperature increase to 2°C, yet they continue to climb-according to the International Energy Agency's 2012 World Energy Outlook, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion reached a record high in 2011."

One of the key findings of the report was that "it is clear that most fossil fuels must be left in the ground and cannot be burned."

CO2 increased by 40 per cent from 278 parts per million (ppm) circa 1750 to 390.5 ppm in 2011, and levels of atmospheric Co2 CH4 (methane) and N20 currently exceed any levels we have experienced over at least the past 800,000 years.

The IPCC's latest report also states that we have about 30 years to stop burning fossil fuels if we want to stay within the project 2 degrees of warming, above which life on Earth would be seriously affected.

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