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| Coal-fired Power Station Model |
Using this information from the World Coal Association we can calculate how much electricity the coal power plant will produce each year (600 MWe x 24 hours a day x 365 days a year x 75% availability) which is 3,942,000 MWh.
The cost of coal will vary from time to time. For any price of coal we can calculate the yearly cost of coal and the unit fuel cost for the electricity produced.
| Coal Price ($ per tonne) |
Annual Cost ($million) |
MWh fuel cost (per MWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 60 | 90 | $14.33 |
| 80 | 120 | $19.11 |
| 100 | 150 | $23.88 |
| 120 | 180 | $28.66 |
The same amount of electricity could be produced by a natural gas power station.
A 600 MWe combined cycle gas turbine power plant operating at 60% efficiency and 75% overall availability will consume approximately 23.85 million gigajoules of natural gas per annum.
.@osPatriot @EPA Note rapid gas turbine evolution. Siemens SGT5-4000: http://t.co/4eFdj6NqW0 GE Flexefficiency: http://t.co/b0WAcid9CB #Coal
— Askgerbil Now (@Askgerbil) May 9, 2014
Siemens has sold 25 H-Class gas turbines worldwide. With an efficiency over 60 percent ... | http://t.co/ov13SyR3n0 #Coal plants obsolete.
— Askgerbil Now (@Askgerbil) May 10, 2014
GE announced over $1.2 billion in orders for first 19 FlexEfficiency 60 portfolio gas turbines http://t.co/B9yGpQ9qlg #Coal plants obsolete
— Askgerbil Now (@Askgerbil) May 10, 2014
Our power plant can convert more than 60% of the energy from natural gas into electricity http://t.co/ItQR2zIXIW pic.twitter.com/8TnNISp1nq
— Siemens (@Siemens) May 20, 2014
The yearly cost of natural gas and the unit cost of the electricity produced will be the same as the coal power plant with the following prices of natural gas:
| Coal Price ($ per tonne) |
Natural Gas ($ per GJ) |
Annual Cost ($million) |
MWh fuel cost (per MWh) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 | $3.81 | 90 | $14.33 |
| 80 | $5.07 | 120 | $19.11 |
| 100 | $6.34 | 150 | $23.88 |
| 120 | $7.71 | 180 | $28.66 |
Carbon dioxide emissions from the coal power plant will be about 0.8 tonnes per MWh of electricity produced and about 0.3 tonnes from the gas power plant.
If coal costs $60 per tonne and natural gas costs $7.71 per gigajoule the information above implies that electricity from a natural gas power plant will have double the fuel cost of the coal power station.
Cheap coal can be converted into natural gas.
Why would anyone ever build a coal power plant?
If coal that costs $60 per tonne is converted into natural gas at 80% efficiency, then the fuel for the natural gas power plant can be produced from 1.18 million tonnes of coal costing only $70.6 million a year. This is a saving of $19.4 million every year on the $90 million cost of coal that a coal power plant needs to produce the same amount of electricity as the natural gas power plant.
Wanxiang and GreatPoint Energy $1.25 Billion Investment World’s Most Efficient #Coal-to-Natural Gas Facility in China http://t.co/hb9ZrGPTFO
— Askgerbil Now (@Askgerbil) May 4, 2014
Further reading -
U.S. Department of Energy. Coal gasification offers one of the most versatile and clean ways to convert coal into electricity, hydrogen, and other valuable energy products.Basin Electric, through its for-profit subsidiary, Dakota Gasification Company (Dakota Gas) owns and operates the Great Plains Synfuels Plant. The Synfuels Plant is the only commercial-scale coal gasification plant in the U.S. that manufactures natural gas. It is located five miles northwest of Beulah, North Dakota.
The Coal Can Do That article "Coal-to-Gas is Off-the-Shelf Energy Solution" from February 2009 by Dr. Frank Clemente.
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