Campaigners are calling on a new SSE facility at Peterhead to be stopped in its tracks after a new assessment shows three times the environmental impact originally reported, while emissions sequestration is too high to be believable.
Public concern over the gas burning power station has been increasing for months, peaking with the release of damning independent research in 2024. This claimed there could be up to five times the emissions as included in official estimates.
The Scottish Government has since failed to request an updated Environmental Impact Assessment from SSE, which is responsible for the new development. However, updated numbers from the company have now reaffirmed the fears of local communities and environmentalists, showing a three-fold increase in carbon emissions – rising to be 682,610 tCO2e/year – and lifetime pollution, increasing from 6.3million to 17.1 million tonnes annually.
Concerns have also been raised a bout SSE’s claims that on-site carbon capture and storage would sequester 90% of these fumes. The technology has never successfully reach this level of performance. Eligibility for UK Government subsidies requires a minimum of 70% capture, with analysts suggesting 75% would be a more realistic estimate.
‘SSE has been forced to admit its plans for new gas burning at Peterhead would be a climate disaster for decades to come. The climate case for this project was always desperately weak and now it is in tatters. Scottish Government Ministers must reject it completely,’ said Friends of the Earth Scotland’s climate campaigner Alex Lee.
‘Even the tripling of its climate harm is likely to be a gross underestimate because of SSE’s wildly exaggerated claims about how much carbon it aims to capture,’ they continued. ‘This entire scheme is built on the rotten foundations of carbon capture, which decades of evidence has made clear will not work.’
Red flags have also been raised due to the additional environmental pressures being added to an area which is already home to one of Scotland’s biggest polluters, with the proposed power plant set to run alongside the existing facility until 2040. The second site will then continue operating until 2055, a decade after Holyrood’s current target year for national net zero.
‘The Scottish Government should be embarrassed by its failure to ever properly interrogate the claims of SSE or order a new environmental assessment when concerns were raised,’ Lee added. ‘Ministers can save some face now by scrapping these plans and investing in climate solutions that we know will work today and improve lives – upgrading public transport, insulating homes and creating green jobs in credible industries with a secure future.’
Image: Michal Pech / Unsplash
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