Utilities Weigh Conversions to Natural Gas

摘要

Given looming Environmental Protection Agency mandates, which coal-fired generating units should be shut down early? Does it make financial sense to install environmental and other retrofits on the facilities and keep them running? Should coal plants be converted to natural gas? When are supercritical coal plants no longer sustainable in competitive generation markets? A few years ago, such questions were nearly unthinkable. Coal—cheap, abundant and homegrown—has been the U.S. power industry's go-to fuel. Nuclear, natural gas, solar and wind generally were too expensive or too impractical to compete with coal.