entergy start-up of plant reflects North american trend for gas-fired capacity

摘要

Entergy Louisiana announced Wednesday that its new 980- MW St. Charles Power Station, a natural gas combined-cycle facility, is now in operation — the latest Entergy effort to replace old, inefficient plants with new plants with fewer greenhouse gas emissions. The trend toward increased natural gas and renewable capacity is prevalent across North America, primarily to replace aging coal fleets, to comply with public policy goals and to exploit the economics of cheaper natural gas and near-zero-marginal-cost renewable energy. This trend is likely to persist, industry observers said, and the trend’s power market impacts may be varied.