Bolstering Coal-Fired Plant Economics

摘要

The economics of power generation with fossil fuels, in particular the viability of U.S. coal-fired plants, are profoundly affected by factors such as capital cost, operation and maintenance cost, fuel price, labor cost, and especially the present and potential future regulations governing control of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The emissions of carbon dioxide-the GHG of primary concern-for four basic power-generation technologies are as follows: (1) coal-fired supercritical (heat rate of 8,700 Btu/kWh), 1.7; (2) coal-fired ultra-supercritical (heat rate of 7,800 Btu/ kWh), 1.6; (3) conventional natural gas combined cycle, 0.8; and (4) integrated gasification combined cycle, 1.7 As shown, natural gas-fired combined cycle, at 0.8 pounds, produces about half the CO_2 emissions for coal-fired units, whether supercritical or ultra-supercritical. The natural gas technology has attendant economic advantages over coal-fired units under almost all scenarios for GHG emission control.