The successful deployment of carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS) in power generation will be crucial to achieving the UK's climate change goal of an 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050, says a new report from Carbon Connect. "Electricity supply will likely need to rise significantly by 2050, and decarbonising the power sector beyond 2030 without CCS would be expensive and politically challenging," the report reads.
Introducing capacity payments for power producers in Germany is deemed "inevitable" by 2017, UBS analysts say, as hard coal and gas-fired power plants need additional incentives for operating during peak-demand hours or for balancing intermittent renewable energy supply.
Relative gas and coal prices will have a significant impact on the future energy mix in the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration's (EIA) 2013 Annual Energy Outlook. Under the EIA's Reference case, natural gas power plants will begin to lose their competitive advantage over time as natural gas prices increase relative to coal, making up 28 percent of the generation mix in 2040. This represents a rise from the 2011 level of 24 percent but falls short of the 42 percent that would be expected under the EIA's High Oil and Gas Resource case.
Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) announced on Tuesday that it will seek approval to construct a new natural gas-fired power plant named the Wildcat Point Generation Facility near the town of Rising Sun, Maryland on existing property of its Rock Springs Generation Facility. ODEC says the plant will generate about 1000MW of power – enough to supply 390 000 homes annually – and is expected to become operational in 2017.
Germany's 'green' energy policies are failing to provide their intended emissions reductions , says John Rhys, Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), arguing that phasing out nuclear will continue to increase coal use significantly. "Germany does not promote CCS (...) and it is also foregoing gas," he said in an opinion piece published by the Institute, claiming "Germany's simultaneous capitulation to anti-nuclear prejudice and willingness to compromise on cheap high CO2 emissions coal is therefore a disappointment to British supporters of EU ambitions to lead on climate change".
A coalition of 10 US states and 5 cities lead by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has filed a court brief urging the US Supreme Court at the request of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review and reverse a lower court decision that invalidated an EPA rule requiring substantial cuts in the interstate transport of air pollution.
Success in the micro Combined Heat and Power (CHP) market is dependent on having a standardised, efficient and cost effective generation unit, Jean-Pierre Van Wingen, General Manager of E. Van Wingen (EVW) told COGEN Europe's annual conference in Brussels. "It is essential that you have a standard product. It needs to be competitive and have a low price and that is only possible when you have a concept that can be produced in volume," he said, adding that "production in volume also allows you to have standardized service and decrease marketing costs."
Gas-fired distributed power projects in the UK will benefit from specific support schemes, including capacity mechanisms, which are forthcoming as part of a new regulatory package stipulated under the Electricity Market Reform, says Dr. Jim Fitzgerald, Associate Partner at The Advisory House.
"Contracts for Difference (CfD) will differentiate on technology, with different auction prices for each low carbon technology. We expect a specific capacity mechanism to be put in place to enhance support available for distributed gas fired power generation projects," he told Gas to Power Journal in an interview.
MAN Diesel & Turbo has supplied a custom-made steam turbine for the 100MW Shams 1 solar thermal power plant in Abu Dhabi, owned by the Shams Power Company – a joint venture between Masdar, Total and Abengoa Solar. Unlike conventional solar plants using photovoltaics where solar cells convert the sun's energy directly into electricity, the plant utilises concentrated solar power (CSP) technology to work with fossil fuels.
The 'Golden Age of Gas' fueled by the rise of unconventional gas resources such as shale gas is set to spur new CHP capacity, Shonodeep Modak, Global Marketing Manager at GE Gas Engines told Gas to Power Journal at this year's COGEN Europe annual conference in Brussels. "In the near term, the majority of new CHP will be gas based. There will be some biomass projects in places such as South East Asia and parts of Latin America which lack fossil fuels, but that is still some time away," he said.
Unless new efficient policy measures are implemented, about 40 percent of Spain's installed Combined Heat and Power (CHP) capacity is at risk of being shut-down in 2015, Javier Rodríguez Morales, Director General of Spain's Cogeneration Association (Acogen) told Gas to Power Journal. "At the moment, there is a moratorium in place to install new cogeneration capacity since 2012, as well as uncertainty about the actual regulatory framework reform and new energy taxes applied since 2003 which are deeply impacting CHP," he said.
Sembcorp Industries has sealed a deal to develop its first energy-from-waste facility outside Singapore. The 49MW plant project, located in Teesside, UK, will be developed under a 40:40:20 joint venture between Sembcorp, SITA UK (part of SUEZ Environment) and ITOCHU Corp.