Dispersion of pollutants, environmental externalities due to a pulverized coal power plant and their effect on the cost of electricity

Energy conversion systems generate pollution which causes damages to human health, building materials, crops, land, etc. The objective of this work is to study the dispersion of pollutants and assess the cost of pollution of such a system to the society and environment. For this purpose, a pulverized coal power plant is selected. Using thermodynamic principles combined with empirical techniques, the quantities of pollutants emitted by this plant are estimated, then using the EcoSenseWeb software, which is based on the results of the ExternE project, the external environmental cost (externalities) of pollution are assessed. This plant is considered as located in four different cities in Poland and the externalities are calculated for each city separately. It is shown that the external environmental cost has a strong influence on the unit cost of electricity. In addition, the dispersion of pollutants is presented for the plant located in Olsztyn city. Furthermore, the plant has been also located near the capitals of European countries. The environmental externalities are calculated for each city and, in addition, the neighbouring countries that are strongly affected by the plant in each particular city are identified. The sensitivity of the unit cost of electricity to certain important parameters is investigated.