Pembroke - the environment

Protecting the environment is a very important issue and RWE npower is committed to limiting the environmental impact of everything we do – especially when developing a new power station.

Modern gas-fired power stations are clean and compact facilities.  Generating electricity from gas is more efficient than other fossil fuels and gas also contains less carbon than coal.  These two factors result in gas-fired power generation producing less than half the CO₂ emissions when compared to electricity generated from existing coal fired power stations.

The other main product of combustion is water – there is no ash or dust and gas contains virtually no sulphur.

We are committed to conducting the construction and operation of our power plants in an environmentally sustainable way and we will continue to co-operate with the Environment Agency and Countryside Council for Wales to work towards achieving this goal.

Environmental Statement

Any company seeking planning consent to build a large power station must thoroughly investigate the possible effects of its proposals on the environment.  An Environmental Statement (ES) providing details of these investigations and their conclusions must be submitted with the planning application, forming a vital part of the planning process.

We submitted an ES with our original planning application in 2005, however we have since carried out further detailed consultation and environmental surveys making it necessary to update our statement and consolidate the new information with that of the original ES.

The updated ES contains comprehensive information about the potential environmental impact of the proposed gas-fired power station on our Pembroke site.  We believe the ES demonstrates that the power station will not have a significant impact on the environment and that it will not harm the integrity of the Pembrokeshire Marine Special Area of Conservation.

Environmental Permit

RWE npower has also applied to the Environment Agency for an Environmental Permit. This regulates the operation of the power station in terms of discharges to the surrounding air, water or land.

We need this Environmental Permit to be in place before any of the gas turbines at the Power Station can be fired for the first time. It regulates specific areas including:

• The prevention of environmental accidents
• Operational noise emitted by the Power Station and from associated machinery
• The energy efficiency of the Power Station
• Minimisation and proper management of waste arising during the operation of the Power Station and as a result of its ongoing maintenance

The application was made in the first quarter of 2010 and the process of granting an Environmental Permit usually takes around 12 months.