Tuesday, August 10, 2010

"Coal is base load generation king in the U.S."

August 10, 2010 - Tuesday morning's keynote session at COAL-GEN 2010 featured three informative speakers that opened up continued dialogue between the delegates across the exhibition floor. James Wood from the Department of Energy, Dr. Robert Wayland from the Environmental Protection Agency and Penn State Social Science Professor Frank Clemente all delivered insightful speeches on not only the current and future status of coal-fired generation, but energy as a whole.

As the U.S. population grows the need for electricity will continue to rise and coal is going to be in the mix of power generation. Prof. Clemente described during his presentation that by the year 2030 four billion people globally will get 40 percent of their electricity from coal-based generation. Just here in the U.S. coal represents almost 50 percent of the total power generation. But as the power providers continue to burn coal and companies look to build new coal-fired plants, there are regulations in place to cut down on emissions. EPA is working on several National Air Quality Standards that will reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter released. EPA has also proposed to strengthen the 8-hour primary ozone standard to a level within the range of 0.060-0.070 parts per million (ppm) to protect public health. And for companies operating coal-fired plants they may have to comply with the new standards being set forth by EPA.

EPA has created an Integrated Utility Strategy that has the vision of an electric power sector in a clean energy economy. All pieces of the larger puzzle are the newly proposed Transport Rule that covers 31 states and D.C., utility MACT (maximum achievable control technology), New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) along with regulations from the Office of Water and Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery. But retrofitting plants to meet new standards is not cheap.

"It's sure true that if coal based generation is going to stay as base load in the U.S. the technologies that will need to be put in place for carbon capture and sequestration will have to be competitive in capital and operating costs," said Wood.

And Dr. Wayland stated that in order to avoid wasting investment and stranding assets the process has to be completed in a sequence and timely manner.

“There is new data coming in now to be used in the new MACT rule,” said Wayland.
And while companies will attempt to comply with new EPA standards in the future, Prof. Clemente insisted that coal is the answer for electricity generation in the U.S. Currently over 20 states get 45 percent of their power generation from what Prof. Clemente described as an energy secured, versatile fuel.

So what does the next 20 years look like for coal generation? No one can be so sure to say that they know exactly where the industry will stand but both Wood and Wayland stated that by the 2030 timeframe coal-fired plants should be in the mid-40 range for efficiency and be achieving zero emissions. When Power Engineering Chief Editor asked Wayland if zero emission is achievable, the answer was “by 2020 to 2030, yes it is.”

And while natural gas plants continue to come online in the U.S. along with renewables, "coal is base load generation king in the U.S,” said Wayland.

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