Our Emissions Performance in 2011

All our stack air emissions were within the limits required by permit requirements in 2011 and we achieved reductions in emission intensity of CO₂, SO₂, NO_x and particulates, compared with 2010.

CO₂

Our efforts to decrease the carbon intensity of our portfolio continued in 2010. The carbon intensity of the electricity we generated decreased from 512.93 g/kWh in 2010 to 489.01g/kWh in 2011¹.

There was a 11% decrease in total generation across our plants in 2011. The proportion of the generation sources are similar to 2010 with approximately two thirds generation coming from natural gas-fired plant, 28% from coal plant and the remainder from renewable sources (our oil-fired plant ran but generated at very low levels). As a result of the decrease in generation, total emissions of CO₂ decreased from 18.78 Mt in 2010 to 15.88 Mt in 2011.

SO₂

Total emissions of SO₂ decreased from 18.67 ktonnes in 2010 to 15.73 ktonnes in 2011 and emissions intensity decreased from 0.51 g/kWh to 0.48 g/kWh. This decrease in total SO₂ emissions is due to lower total generation in 2011 compared to 2010.

NO_x

Total NO_x emissions decreased from 34.02 ktonnes in 2010 to 28.65 ktonnes in 2011. The intensity of our NO_x emissions reduced from 0.93 g/kWh in 2010 to 0.88 g/kWh in 2011. This decrease in total NO_x emissions is due to lower total generation in 2011 compared to 2010.

Particulates

Total particulates have decreased from 1.27 ktonnes in 2010 to 1.09 ktonnes in 2011 and emissions intensity has slightly decreased with a value of 0.03 g/kWh in 2011.

The decrease in the emission intensity values for SO₂, NO_x and particulates is due to the slightly lower proportion of generation from coal-fired power stations and the slightly higher proportion of renewable generation in 2011.

¹ This includes RWE npower renewables data.