The assessment of health impacts and external costs of natural gas-fired power plant of Qom

Abstract

The external health damage costs of the combined cycle natural gas-fired power plant of Qom were investigated via the simplified impact pathway approach. Emitted particulate matter (PM) and gaseous pollutants (NO , CO, and SO) from the power plant stack were measured The health effects and related costs were estimated by QUERI model from AirPacts according to the emissions, source and stack parameters, pollutant depletion velocities, exposure-response functions, local and regional population density, and detailed meteorological data. The results showed that the main health effect was assigned to the nitrate as restricted activity days (RAD) with 25,240 days/year. For all pollutants, the maximum health damage costs were related to the long-term mortality (49 %), restricted activity days (27 %), and chronic bronchitis (21 %). The annual health damage costs were approximately 4.76 million US$, with the cost being 0.096 US per kWh of generating electricity. Although the health damage costs of gas-fired power plant were lower than those of other heavy fuels, it seems essential to consider the health and environmental damages and focus on the emission control strategies, particularly in site selection for the new power plants and expanding the current ones.

Impactos socioambientais devidos à geração de energia elétrica de carvão mineral no Município de Figueira (Estado do Paraná, Sul do Brasil)

“…O período considerado inicia-se em 2004, devido à disponibilidade dos dados sobre emissão, até 2018. O Simplified Approach of Estimating Impacts of Electricity Generation (SIMPACTS) (IAEA, 2020) utiliza os dados demográficos e técnicos da usina para poder quantificar os danos à saúde ao redor da UTE de carvão mineral devido à atividade de geração de energia elétrica, trabalhos similares foram realizados em outros países usando o SIMPACTS (Hainoun et al, 2010;Nwanya, 2011;Fard et al, 2016;Jorli et al, 2017), no Brasil existem estudos similares em relação aos impactos ambientais causados pela poluição de termelétricas (Hoffmann, 2013;Almeida et al, 2019;Pedruzzi et al, 2019). A UTE a carvão mineral encontra-se instalada no Município de Figueira, no Estado do Paraná, sul do Brasil, que, de acordo com o IBGE (2010) possui uma área de 129,769 km², com população de 8.293 habitantes e densidade demográfica de 63,91 hab/km².…”

The External Cost of Electricity Generation: An Applicable Approach for Environmental Decision-Making on Electricity Exportation Strategy

“…Also, it was shown that using renewable energies instead of fossil fuel reduced15-20% of external costs during nine years (El-Guindy and Mahmoud, 2014). The assessment of health impacts and external costs of a natural gas power plant in Iran was also performed using the ExternE method (Fouladi Fard et al, 2016). The annual external cost of emission for selected gas power plant with 714 MW generation capacity was approximately 4.76 million US$.…”