Methodologies for atmospheric pollution assessment and the procedures for environmental permits in large combustion plants in Europe

The procedures followed by the European electricity companies for securing operation licenses and obtaining environmental permits, as well as the cont ent of the environmental permits and authorization documents have been revi ewed. The review aims to identify different and common elements of the proc edures, since most of the companies recognize that the interaction between environmental procedures and the approval process is very complicated. In a ddition, the regulatory dispersion models used by these companies for envir onmental impact assessment studies are considered. The work is mainly based on information collected from electricity companies and environmental agen cies in England, France, Italy, Germany and Greece. The results of these in tercomparisons help to obtain a consensus view about the environmental issu e for large combustion plants across Europe.