Jetten is considering subsidies for controversial biomass power stations, despite criticism | climate

The Netherlands must remove millions of tons of CO2 from the air in the coming decades, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) concluded in a report last week. With such ‘negative emissions’, the remaining emissions in 2050 can be compensated and still become climate neutral.

The German energy giant RWE hopes to give its coal-fired power stations in Eemshaven and Geertruidenberg a second life by switching completely to biomass. If CO2 emissions are captured and stored permanently, this counts as the negative emissions that are so necessary according to the PBL.

But the planning agency also concludes that there is little point in capturing CO2 emissions from power stations. This can be done “much more energy-efficient and cheaper” at factories that make biofuels. These will soon be desperately needed to make aviation and shipping more sustainable.

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Nevertheless, Jetten appears to be planning to open a subsidy scheme for capturing CO2 emissions from biomass power stations. His spokesperson acknowledges that it is “more effective in the long term” to capture CO2 in the production of biofuels. “But we also have the goal of achieving 1.5 megatons of negative emissions by 2030, and this can be achieved more easily at bioenergy plants in that period.”

During the press presentation of the recent advice, PBL director Marko Hekkert warned against this kind of short-term thinking. “We see that the current policy is very focused on the year 2030,” he said. But according to him, it does not always lead to the most efficient choices to make the Netherlands climate neutral in 25 years. “The danger you run with this is that you miss turns before the final goal in 2050.”

It is not yet entirely certain that Jetten will open the subsidy pot. He says he will make a decision about this before the summer. The conditions for subsidies for other sustainable technologies, such as solar and wind farms, geothermal heat and biogas production, will then also be announced.

RWE has already applied for permits for the conversion of its coal-fired power stations. The company believes it can capture and store 11 to 14 megatons of CO2 per year. In theory, this could make a significant contribution to the Dutch climate goals.

But to be able to store so many megatons, the plant must run much more than it does now. Last year, the RWE coal-fired power plant in Eemshaven ‘only’ emitted 2.8 megatons of CO2. For a large part of the year, the plant was turned off or not running at full power, because it was cheaper to get power from solar panels, wind turbines or gas-fired power stations.

Biomass power plants that will actually run more often are the specter of environmental groups. They believe that burning biomass is a bad idea anyway, because of the impact on the forests where the required wood comes from. Nitrogen and other harmful substances are also released when biomass is burned.

CO2 storage at such power stations is “the wrong turn”, says Maarten Visschers of the Environmental Association. The government is no longer providing new subsidies for power production with biomass. Previously, many billions of euros were made available for this purpose.

Energy expert Martien Visser from Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, like the PBL, thinks that CO2 storage makes more sense in the long term for the production of biofuels. But those factories are not there yet, and the technology can be an interim solution for power stations, he thinks. “2050 is still a long way away.”

RWE also says in a written response to the PBL report that CO2 storage at power stations can lead to negative emissions sooner. “Why not deliver negative emissions now, further develop sustainable biomass flows and then gradually further develop the use of biomass in industry?” the company asks. “In short, not either-or but both-and.”

Incidentally, when the coal-fired power station in Eemshaven was built, there were also plans for the storage of CO2 emissions. But then minister Maxime Verhagen scrapped the plan to store CO2 underground in the north of the country, after protests from residents.

This time, RWE hopes to transport the CO2 via a pipeline under the North Sea, or to transport it by ship to another country that wants to store the greenhouse gas.

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