Two recent developments in openly accessible data allow for better monitoring of power plant emissions. The Global Power Plant Database is an open-access open-use dataset of the world's power plants that is in continual development under a partnership led by the World Resources Institute (WRI). The Database contains well over 28-thousand power plants of all generating types and includes information such as generating capacity, fuel type, and accurate geolocation. Pollutant concentration data from the European Space Agency's Sentinel 5P satellite and the TROPOMI sensor enables daily views into a set of air pollutants world wide at previously unavailable spatial resolution. When visualized with context from the Global Power Plant Database and global wind models, strong correlations are found between the locations of linear and arcuate streaks of high pollutant concentrations and large fossil-fuel burning power plants.
This presentation details the collaborative research opportunities for monitoring and accounting air pollutants from power plants across the world using TROPOMI data. It highlights existing research partnerships, data limitations, and methodological uncertainties in linking measured atmospheric species to a point source. A discussion of research progress and future aspirations demonstrates the need for multi-party partnerships to develop and operationalize algorithms for quantifying emissions of individual power plants in near-real time.
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