Capell Aris: Should we abandon electricity generation using gas?
MARCH 6, 2024
tags: ccgt
By Paul Homewood
A recent article (Are Labour sleepwalking to energy disaster?) showed that the UK’s capacity of combined-cycle gas turbine generators (CCGTs) is declining, and that by 2030 will have fallen to 12 GW; it will disappear in the next decade.
We are reliant on CCGTs to cover times when intermittent, renewable output is low, and to ensure grid stability. We will therefore need to build more CCGTs, but this is an attractive option, since CCGT plants are cheap and quick to build.
There was one noteworthy addition to the CCGT fleet in 2023: Keadby 2. Its performance is remarkable, boasting an efficiency of 63% – compared to the 46% of the retiring CCGTs. It was cheap and quick to build (see Table 1). The carbon dioxide emissions of the old CCGT fleet was 365 g/kWh but ‘Keadby’ CCGTs could decrease that to 260 g/kWh – 30% lower. Keadby 2 has great flexibility in the fuel it can burn. There will be changes in output power and efficiency between different fuels, but it can burn gas from offshore gas fields or fracked gas. It can also burn syngas which can be extracted from UK coal, increasing our fuel security.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2024/03/06/capell-aris-should-we-abandon-electricity-generation-using-gas/
