Schwarze Pumpe Power Station

Action by: Ende Gelände

Carbon Offset: 2.1 Metric Tons

Vintage: 2016

Location: Spremberg, Germany

In one of the largest acts of civil disobedience against fossil fuels in Germany, activists effectively curtailed the Schwarze Pumpe power station's energy production for two days by blocking entry to the Welzow opencast mine and the plant. These actions, which reduced the power station's operations by 80%, were part of a protest against Lusatia’s coal mining industry which is cited as the highest investment in coal-fired power in Europe.

$$ {\sum_{n=1}^{days}({0.8\times Coal_{tonnes\,per\,day} \times CO_{2\,tonnes\,of\,coal}} \times n}) $$

Methodology

Step 1: Calculate the quantity of CO2 emissions that were delayed on each day of the action.

In 2016, several thousand activists stormed the Schwarze Pumpe power station, reducing its power production by 80% for two days 1. The facility is powered by two 800 MW units 4. A 1000 MW unit is estimated to burn 9000 tonnes of coal per day 3. To calculate the approximate tonnes of coal prevented from being burnt per day, the MW:MT ratio was applied to the 1600 MW Schwarze Pumpe power station’s reduced output.

$$ \begin{aligned} tonne_{SchwarzeCoal}&= {{{MW_{Schwarze}} \times tonne_{AverageCoal}} \over MW_{Average}} \\[5pt] &= {{1600 \times 9000}\over 1000} \\[5pt] &= 14,400 \end{aligned} $$
$$ \begin{aligned} tCoal/day &= {0.8 \times tonne_{Schwarze}} \\[5pt] &= {0.8 \times 14,400} \\[5pt] &= 11,520 \end{aligned} $$

If 1 tonne of coal releases 2.9 tonnes of CO2 when burned 5, the emissions delayed can be calculated as follows:

$$ \begin{aligned} tCO_2/day &= tCoal/day \times tCO_2/tCoal \\[5pt] &= {11,520 \times 2.9} \\[5pt] &= 33,408 \end{aligned} $$

Step 2: Calculate the benefit of delaying (temporarily storing) these emissions for the period of the action.

If the Schwarze Pumpe power station was reduced by 80% power for two days 1., coal arriving on the site for day 1 would have been stored for two days and coal arriving on site for day 2 would have been stored for one day. The total delayed CO2 emissions equal the emissions from each daily batch of coal, multiplied by the number of days that batch is stored.

$$ \begin{aligned} tonne_{years}CO_2 &= {\sum_{n=1}^{days}{{tCO_2/day} \times n} \over 365} \\[5pt] &= {\sum_{n=1}^{2} {33,408 \times n}\over 365} \\[5pt] &= 274.6 \end{aligned} $$

Step 3: Calculate the offset.

We then use an equivalence factor of 128 which was calculated using the Lashof method with a discount rate of 0 and a time horizon of 100 years 6 7. This equivalence factor posits that the effects of the release of 1 tonne of CO2 emissions is offset by the storage of 128 tonnes of CO2 for 100 years.

$$ \begin{aligned} Offset &= {tonne_{years}CO_2 \over equivalence} \\[5pt] &= {274.6 \over 128} \\[5pt] &= 2.1 tCO_2 \end{aligned} $$

  1. https://www.ende-gelaende.org/en/press-release/press-release-15-may-2016/ ↩↩

  2. https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Coal_fired_power_plant#cite_note-4 ↩

  3. R. A. Hinrichs and M. Kleinbach, "Electricity: Circuits + Superconductors," in Energy: Its Use and the Environment, 4th ed. Toronto, Ont. Canada: Thomson Brooks/Cole, 2006, ch.10, sec.A, pp.320 ↩

  4. https://www.power-technology.com/data-insights/power-plant-profile-schwarze-pumpe-power-station-germany/ ↩

  5. https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-can-burning-one-ton-fuel-create-more-one-ton-co2 ↩

  6. Chay et. al. calculate this equivalence factor using Lashof here: https://carbonplan.org/research/ton-year-explainer ↩

  7. Fearnside et. al. (2000) Accounting for time in mitigating global warming through land-use change and forestry. Mitigation and adaptation strategies for global change ↩

  8. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/16/break-free-protest-fossil-fuel ↩

  9. https://www.ende-gelaende.org/en/press-release/press-release-11-10-2016/ ↩

  10. https://web.archive.org/web/20160612210036/https://www.ende-gelaende.org/de/aktion/aufruf/ ↩