Britain is preparing to make a 'dash for gas generation' which may pove to be the more affordable option than renewables.
"Following the government's change in policy direction, it is now time and money that will determine whether a power plant, equipped with viable Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology, will be in operation by 2020," says Howard Rogers, Director, Gas Programme, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES).
Austria's Econgas foresees no imminent growth in Germany's gas demand, according to Norbert Kint, head of trading at the Austrian utility. "In 2013, renewable energy supply will continue to eat into consumption levels of gas for power generation," he said in a panel session at the Gastech conference in London.
SSE, formerly known as Scottish & southern Energy, has completed the acquisition of Endesa Ireland Ltd for a total cash consideration of €308m plus an estimated €53m for working capital, the UK utility said on Tuesday. Once completed, the acquisition makes SSE the third largest generation capacity owner in Ireland's all-island Single Electricity Market (SEM) with 1,568 MW, or around 13% of installed capacity, in operation.
Gazprom is considering laying down a third 27.5 Bcm/year pipeline leg of Nord Stream as it aims to increase gas supplies to Germany, Netherlands and the UK. "Investment decision will be made in a short time," the Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said at a press conference at the Gastech conference in London today.
China, the fastest growing gas market globally, is forecast to keep growing at annual rates of around 13 percent, Anne-Sophie Corbeau, senior analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today, but she cautioned that the two-tier pricing system, with high prices paid for LNG imports and regulated low domestic gas prices, will keep hampering the growth of gas generation.
Gas generation is poised to play a bigger role in denting Brazil's need for peakload power supply, providing bottlenecks in the gas pipeline network get resolved in order to allow the country's power companies make full use of domestic gas reserves. Gas generation in 2011 made up 59.1 percent, or 13,220 megawatt, of Brazils 22,368 MW installed thermal capacity, according to GlobalData.