Externalities from lignite mining-related dust emissions

Abstract

During the last three decades, several studies have been conducted in order to assess the external costs of electricity production from fossil fuels, especially coal and lignite. Nevertheless, these studies usually ignore the impacts generated by the upstream mining works. This paper contributes to existing literature and attempts to fill this gap by exploring the externalities of lignite mining owing to the emission of suspended particulate matter. To this end, a ‘bottom-up’ approach is implemented, using as case study the largest operational lignite surface mine at the Lignite Center of Western Macedonia (Greece). The results indicate that annual air pollution externalities of lignite mining are of the order of 3€/ton of lignite, which corresponds to around 5.0 €/MWh. The estimated costs are significantly lower, i.e. up to 80%, when dust deposition is considered in air dispersion models. In any case, these findings should be seen as a starting point for discussion owing to the lack of specific emission rates for Greek lignite mines.