World Energy Congress: Technology Available to Meet Power, Environmental Imperatives

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Although topics surrounding the protection of the environment and industrial emissions control have risen ever higher in the minds of professionals and the general public in the past two decades, they have not reached the clarity of focus which we are now witnessing. There are still some who say that the world's ecosystems will rebalance themselves and that hot spells have been survived before over the past few thousand years. But governments, industries and the public have accepted that something must be done and will be done to mitigate and reverse man-made global warming. Maybe it's the weather that has finally pushed the message through because of its effects on people and their health.

Fortunately there seems to be a degree of confidence among scientists and executives in the emitting industries that the tools are available to do the job. At the mid-November World Energy Congress (WEC) in Rome, Siemens' Executive Vice President Uriel Sharef said that in the energy sector, suppliers are in a position to meet power demands with solutions that also address environmental concerns. But he stressed that the biggest problem was to "lure investors into the energy sector." Asia presented the toughest challenge, he said, with annual growth averaging 4% through 2030 by which time Asia will account for nearly half of the world's total consumption.

Sharef said that there is great potential for power plant efficiency improvement and expected the efficiency of lignite-fired plants to grow from 43% today to 50% by 2020. Coal-fired plants could experience even greater gains in efficiency. Combined-cycle power could also improve from the current rate of 58% to well over 60%.

Carbon capture for coal-fired plants will be a strategic pillar of the global energy mix for a long time. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) processes are well known and understood, he said. It is impossible to forecast which of the three current technologies - pre-combustion, post combustion and oxyfuel - will prevail.

A correct balance in the energy mix will be fundamental for meeting Asia's thirst for energy. This, Sharef said, is a low emission base load power supply provided by coal-fired, nuclear and hydro power plants, combined with renewable sources and highly efficient gas fired plants able to compensate for fluctuations in power from renewables. "Such a technology mix would substantially reduce CO2 emissions from today's level. And it would provide a realistic, balanced and reliable power supply," Sharef said.

The WEC said in closing that its global mandate will now include the following responsibilities:

• A global framework to curb greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2010 that will ensure a stable carbon price

• Global rules of energy trade and investment

• New financial schemes limiting investment risk and offering realistic returns

• More government engagement and public-private partnerships to address increasing global energy interdependence, a key strategy to eradicate poverty

Accepting the pressing priority to get things moving, one hesitates to be blunt and say that the WEC list has some tasty slices of motherhood and apple pie in it for members of the industry. The message to hang on to is that the industry says the technologies to do the job are now available. Industrial Info reports a daily parade of massive new power projects and gigantic planned additions to the global generating base by 2020. To implement a balance of cleaner power as mentioned above, and to include the retrofitting of non-compliant base load plants, gigantic investment surely need to be made, if the initiative is not to be pushed back downstream while appearing to be paddling furiously upstream. It has to be like a global Manhattan Project, driven relentlessly until the critical turning point is reached.

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