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发帖数: 4754 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Chinook 俱乐部 】
发信人: hill168 (认真学习中。), 信区: Chinook
标 题: Coal accounts for 10% of 8,100 MW added so far in 2012
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Thu Aug 23 08:40:52 2012, 美东)
Coal accounts for 10% of 8,100 MW added so far in 2012
ClimateWire, 8-21-12
By Daniel Cusick
Natural gas and renewable energy resources have effectively replaced coal as
the fuels of choice for electric utilities building new generation,
according to new data from the Energy Information Administration.
That finding, issued in a "Today in Energy" brief from the agency, comes as
another dose of bad news for the U.S. coal industry. It has witnessed a
steep drop-off in domestic demand as electric utilities increasingly look to
alternative fuels to meet their needs.
But coal's declining market share for electricity is not a recent trend, EIA
said. In fact, "most of the new generators built over the past 15 years are
powered by natural gas or wind," the brief stated.
"In particular, efficient combined-cycle natural gas generators are
competitive with coal generators over a large swath of the country," the
brief continued. "And, in the first half of 2012, these combined-cycle
generators were added in states that traditionally burn mostly coal (with
the exception of Idaho, which has significant hydroelectric resources)."
Only one coal-fired generator, an 800-megawatt unit at the Prairie State
Energy Campus in Illinois, came online in the first six months of 2012.
Eighteen additional coal units remain in either the pre-construction or
planning phases, while only one unit actually began construction after 2010.
EIA said it received no new reports of planned coal-fired generators in its
latest survey of power plant operators.
10 states led in generation additions
For the first half of 2012, EIA said, 165 new electric generators came
online in 33 states, accounting for 8,098 MW of new capacity. The largest
additions -- roughly 6,500 MW of capacity -- came in 10 states: Illinois,
Tennessee, Georgia, New Jersey, California, Ohio, Washington, Colorado,
Texas and Oklahoma.
Broken down by fuel type, three of the 10 top adding states -- Tennessee,
Georgia and Ohio -- met their generation growth fully with natural gas,
while Illinois achieved most of its growth with new coal and wind.
California, Washington and Oklahoma's capacity growth all came exclusively
with new renewables, while New Jersey and Colorado saw strong growth in gas-
fired generation with modest increases in solar power. Texas added 400 MW of
new generation in the first half of the year, much of which will go to
industrial consumers.
EIA said more than 60 percent of the new generators added in the first half
of 2012 were under 25 MW in size, reflecting continued growth in renewable
energy technologies, "most commonly solar and landfill gas." Wind power
companies generally report their generation figures in aggregate numbers
based on numerous wind turbine sites.
The agency also noted a significant number of new peaking plants, usually
small combustion turbines and internal combustion engines that operate only
during periods of peak power demand. Most of these peaking generators run on
natural gas or oil, but some are able to burn landfill gas or agricultural
byproducts, the agency said. |
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