Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 7.4
Sources of external cost due to electricity production, excluding global warming
Local
General
Smut deposition
Acid rain damage
Obscuration of the sun by plumes
to trees and crops
Noise due to plant, coal handling, etc.
to buildings
Noise due to fuel deliveries
to human health
Discharges into watercourses
t o fi sheries
Plant accidents - human cost
to animals
Smells
Oil spillages - clean - up costs
Dust and fumes
Ash disposal accidents
Heavy metal depositions
Heavy metal depositions
Upkeep of emergency evacuation measures (nuclear)
Leakage from radioactive waste
These can be very signifi cant. In the ground-breaking analysis of external costs published by
the European Commission in 1998 [4], it was calculated that support to the German coal
industry added DEM 0.002/kW h to the price of electricity. A cost of DEM 0.0235/kW h was
also assigned to nuclear research and development, compared to around DEM 0.004/kW h
for wind power.
The second category covers costs due to emissions that cause damage to the environment
and/or people. These make up about 10% of the external cost of power generation and include
a wide variety of effects, including damage from acid rain and health damage from oxides
of sulfure and nitrogen emitted from coal fi red power stations. In a European study, ExternE
[5], the costs of damage to health were estimated by calculating the loss of earnings and costs
of hospitalization of people susceptible to respiratory diseases.
Other costs included in the damage and health category are power industry accidents,
whether they occur in coalmines, on offshore oil or gas rigs, or in nuclear plant. The probabil-
ity of a serious nuclear accident in Western Europe might be extremely low, but should a
catastrophic failure occur the costs would be undeniably huge.
The third category is by far the largest: external costs due to greenhouse gas emissions
which cause global warming with all its associated effects. This category accounts for some
40-100% of the hidden costs of the world's consumption of electricity. It is also the most
contentious area of the external costs debate. The range of estimates for the possible economic
implications of global warming is huge. Costs associated with climate changes, fl ooding,
changes in agricultural patterns and other effects all need to be taken into account.
7.4.3 The Kyoto Agreements
The most high profi le global agreements to curb man-made emissions of greenhouse gases,
widely believed to be contributing to global warming, stem from the 1997 Kyoto Conference.
The agreements emerging from this conference are obligatory for ratifying countries through
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with associated
penalties for nonconformance. These agreements form a basis for reducing the emissions of
a 'basket' of greenhouse gases from the industrialized countries (referred to as 'Annex 1' or
