A plan by Italian utility Enel to convert one of its oil fired power plants into a clean coal plant have been rejected by the country’s top administrative court.
The ruling by Italy’s State Council – which cannot be appealed – means that Enel will have to either cancel the €2.5 billion project, or re-start the permitting process from the beginning.
Enel’s plans to convert the 2640 MW Porto Tolle power plant to coal-firing was given a permit to proceed by the Italian Environment Ministry in 2009. The project was opposed by environmental groups, however.
Enel says that it had been planning to start the conversion project at the end of 2011. It planned to use advanced clean coal technology at the plant as well as spend €1 billion on the construction of a carbon capture and storage facility.
In March Enel inaugurated a pilot carbon capture facility at its Federico II coal-fired power plant at Brindisi, Italy. It is also working with oil firm ENI to develop a storage facility site at the exhausted Stogit field at Cortemaggiore and the two pilot projects were to form the basis of the development of a ‘zero-emissions’ plant at Porto Tolle.
Carbon dioxide from the planned clean coal plant at Porto Tolle was to have been stored in a saline aquifer deep below the Adriatic Sea.
The European Union granted Enel €100 million in funding from the EU economic recovery programme for its pilot project in Brindisi and for preliminary work on the Porto Tolle plant.
It took Enel around six years to get approval for the Porto Tolle project from the Italian environment ministry.
Linkedin
