Electricity power generation fuel costs

Electric power generation using biomass as a fuel is economic in situations where the cost of the fuel is competitive with that of fossil fuels. The cost of a commercially available biomass steam—electric power plant is about 1500/kW for a wood-fired facility. If wood can be obtained at a cost of 2.00/GJ ( 2.10 X 10 /Btu), the total cost of power for base-load operation would be about 0.05/kWh. If wood or agricultural wastes are available at... 

Present theories of the origin of acid rain indicate that we can limit acid rain by reducing sulfur dioxide emissions and moving to low-sulfur fuels but, only about 20% of the world s petroleum reserves are low in sulfur. Switching U.S. midwestern power plants to low-sulfur coal could cause economic problems since much of the coal from the Midwest and Appalachia has a high sulfur content. Most of the electric power generated in the Midwest uses high-sulfur coal and it would cost tens of billions of dollars to scrub the sulfur out of coal. 

Fiydrothermal plants produce electric power at a cost competitive with the cost of power from fossil fuels. Besides generating electricity, hydrothermal energy is used directly to heat buildings. Across the United States, geothermal hot-water reservoirs are much more common than geothermal steam reservoirs. Most of the untapped hot-water reservoirs are in California, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico. The temperatures of these reservoirs are not hot enough to drive steam turbines efficiently, but the water is used to boil a secondary fluid, such as butane, whose vapors then drive gas turbines. 

The important use of coal in the United States is electric power generation. This use is expected to increase dramatically in the next decade as the utility need for liquid and gaseous fuels is reduced because of higher costs and potential future shortages of petroleum and natural gas. 

The move to fuel cells may not be pushed by declining oil supplies. The cost of developing new oil discoveries continues to fall and we may not see a forced drop in productivity. It was thought that there was 1.5 billion barrels of oil in the North Sea, but now there appears to be 6 billion barrels. We may not reach the physical limits of oil production until 2050. The U.S. has essentially replaced fuel oil with natural gas in industrial consumption and electric power generation. 

Moreover, there is a current need of miniaturized propulsion system for widening the capabilities of low cost micro-satellites. Recently, the development of a turbo-pump fed miniature rocket engine has been proposed as a new propulsion system for micro-satellites (10 to 100 kg) [6] the bipropellant tlmister uses 70 wt.-% H2O2 as oxidizer and ethanol as fuel. The engine displays four sub-components (i) two propellant micro-pumps, (ii) a HP decomposition chamber, (iii) a turbine coupled to an electric power generator and driven by the hot gas released from HP decomposition, and (iv) a thruster for the combustion reaction. 

The expectation of high fuel cost escalation rates will probably not be borne out as much for electricity as for fossil fuels. Fuel costs are only a portion of the total cost of electric power generation, and cheaper solid fuels are In any case expected to displace oil In electric power generation. 

Fnel-cell electric power generation. Ammonia, methanol, natural gas, or hydrogen conld become significant, environmentally attractive, somces of electric power if nsed in fuel cells as local somces of electricity. Whether methanol or ammonia prodnced by OTEC will be nsed as fuel somces will depend on the cost relative to the costs of the fuels derived from natural gas. 

---