Natural Gas Power Generation Could Solve Immediate Needs

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--With more calls to become energy independent, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and reduce greenhouse emissions, one has to step back and look at what is the best fit for the nation's immediate need for electrical power generation. Although we can appreciate that renewable energy sources like solar and wind generation have contributed toward clean power generation, electricity demand far outpaces the maximum capacity that is generated from these sources.

Click on the image at right to see the top 10 states for planned natural-gas-fired power generation capacity additions.

Nuclear power generation has been proven as a source for clean, renewable power generation in this country. The primary concern for nuclear generation is where to store the nuclear waste byproducts. With a five- to six-year permitting and construction time frame, it hardly can be a considered an immediate fix. The permitting and licensing periods are just as long for hydroelectric generation projects. With an aged coal-fired generation fleet that represents almost 370 gigawatts (GW) of power generation, an immediate solution could lie in natural-gas-fired generation, which saw increased use earlier this decade but then experienced a drastic decrease. Although it is a fossil fuel, it still is a cleaner resource than some other readily available resources in the United States.

Operational natural-gas-fired facilities represent more than 413 GW of power generation capacity. With more than 140 GW of this type of generation in different phases of development over the next 10 years and 18,000 MW of gas-fired generation under construction, it appears that the trend is making a comeback. Compared to other proven generation sources, such as coal-fired facilities, natural-gas-fired plants are the quickest to construct. Data show that for a small to midsize natural-gas-fired facility (20 MW to 900 MW), full permitting takes approximately six to 18 months and construction can take six to 24 months.

The cost to retrofit an operational 1,000-MW coal-fired power station with emissions controls and upgrades would be approximately $400 million. The cost to build an ultra-supercritical coal-fired facility with the same capacity could range from $900 Million to well over $1 billion. But the cost to build a natural-gas-fired combined-cycle plant with the same output averages about $750 million -- and it takes about half the time to build.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.