Munmorah Power Station is a coal fired power station on the shores of Lake Munmorah. It has two steam turbines that generate a total capacity of 600.01 MW of electricity.
The station was originally built with four English Electric 350 MW turbo-alternators, and had a total capacity of 1,400 MW. One unit was completed in 1967, another in 1968, and the remaining two in 1969. The alternators were de-rated in the 1980s to 300 MW each, and the oldest two units were shut down in 1990.
Munmorah uses salt water from Lake Munmorah for cooling. The coal for Munmorah comes from two local underground mines, and is delivered by conveyor belt.
In September 2007, the New South Wales State Government announced the commencement of a trial of 'clean coal' technology at Munmorah Power Station. The $5 million trial by the CSIRO and Delta Electricity will be the first part of a larger $150 million trial jointly funded by the coal companies.[1]
On 15 October 2007, 15 Greenpeace activists entered the power station property and switched off one of the conveyor belts, in a protest against the climate change policies of the Liberal Party of Australia and Australian Labor Party in the run up to the 2007 federal election.[2]
Carbon Monitoring for Action estimates this power station emits 5.56 million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year as a result of burning coal.[3] The Australian Government has announced the introduction of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme commencing in 2010 to help combat climate change. It is expected to impact on emissions from power stations. The National Pollutant Inventory provides details of other pollutant emissions, but, as at 23 November 2008, not CO2.
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