U.S. Coal-Fired Power Plants Evaluate $48 Billion in Environmental Compliance Projects

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Industrial Info is monitoring 584 future environmental compliance projects totaling $48 billion at U.S. coal-fired power plants with scheduled completion dates between 2007 and 2010. About half of this spending, $24 billion will be for SO2 reduction projects. Another 26% will be for NOx reduction projects. The remaining 24% of the planned spending, or $11.4 billion will be for other environmental compliance projects such as particulate or mercury reduction.

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing the breakdown of project spending by year and type.

For 2007, environmental compliance project spending is expected to exceed $15 billion. This includes $3.7 billion for NOx reduction through the installation of 40 SCRs, seven SNCRs, as well as overfired air and low NOx burner retrofits. In addition to NOx reduction projects, over $8 billion will be invested to install 59 flue gas desulfurization scrubbers in 2007. Another $3 billion is earmarked for installation of baghouses, electrostatic precipitators and activated carbon injection systems.

Environmental compliance spending at U.S. coal-fired power plant is scheduled to peak in 2008 at over $14 billion. During 2008 construction is scheduled to begin on 31 selective catalytic reduction units, 24 selective non catalytic reduction units, as well as other overfired air and low NOx burner projects. Total spending for NOx reduction during 2008 is anticipated to be $2.3 billion. An additional 42 scrubbers are planned for construction kick off during 2008, representing $5 billion in total investment. Capital spending for particulate and mercury controls is expected to remain steady during 2008 at $3 billion. Next year 26 baghouses are planned for construction kick off. Many of these projects will include activated carbon injection for mercury control.

Spending in 2009 and 2010 is forecast at about $9 billion and $12 billion respectively.

For details on environmental compliance project spending check out Industrial Info’s Environmental Compliance Database or GenStack Database or contact Industrial Info’s Member Center at 1-800-762-3361.

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