Abstract
The capital costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from various types of electricity power plants will determine the least cost option for achieving our goal of reducing GHG emissions by at least 58 % below 1990 levels from the electricity generation sector (as a major part of our goal of reducing all GHG emissions by 80 % below 1990 levels by 2050). We show a plausible, economic scenario whereby replacing current fossil fuel based power generators with coal-powered integrated gasification combined cycle plants (IGCC) with carbon capture and storage (CCS) will achieve our GHG reduction targets by 2050.
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Notes
- 1.
Assuming a 95 % plant capacity factor and NGCC plants emitting 507 g of CO2-eq. per kWh of electricity (Table 4.2).
- 2.
Higher heating value (HHV) efficiencies are used here since the utility fuels (coal and natural gas) are price in $/MBTU on a higher heating value basis.
- 3.
The “2020” in WEIO-2020 refers to the year for cost estimates, not the year of publication.
- 4.
The Power Capital Cost Index (PCCI) from 2001 to 2015 was a factor of 1.755.
- 5.
As part of a plan to reduce all U.S. GHG emissions by 80 % below 1990 levels.
- 6.
The other expenditures are for transmission and distribution of electricity.
- 7.
Alternately, we could add CSS to the NGCC plants as discussed in the Sect. 4.7 below.
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Thomas, C.E.(. (2017). Electricity Generator Costs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. In: Stopping Climate Change: the Case for Hydrogen and Coal. Lecture Notes in Energy, vol 35. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31655-0_4
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