Global repowering opportunities for biomass

Conference · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:478636

Demeter, C P; Gray, E E; Lindsey, C A ^[1]

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1. Antares Group Inc., Landover, MD (United States)

Global demand for electricity is growing during a time of significant structural change in electric markets. Many countries are creating more competitive markets for power production and sales through regulation and ownership structure. Governments are reducing monopolies, enhancing competition and unbundling electricity services. Equipment suppliers, developers, and service providers are expanding into the global market. Meeting future electric energy needs has forced the power community to examine alternatives to Greenfield Development. Repowering existing facilities to gain a competitive advantage is a promising option. Repowering has the potential to offer increased capacity, heat rate reductions, and improved environmental profiles in a manner consistent with an asset and capital deployment rationalization strategy that appears to characterize the future of the power industry. It is also a defensive strategy for extending the life of existing assets. The breadth of repowering options continues to expand as technologies are introduced to increase plant capacities, efficiencies or both. Some options such as feedwater heater repowering appear to offer advantages to repowering with biomass fuels as an alternative to natural gas projects. By repowering solid fueled facilities, developed and developing countries can receive multiple benefits. Most developing countries are largely agrarian with traditional policies that have relied on trickle-down rural development. By turning agricultural and forestry by-products into commodities, farmers and foresters can benefit from a sustainable source of income. As power demand and biomass requirements are expanded to a regional scale, the government can reduce some agricultural subsidies and shift that money to other economically and socially beneficial programs. Furthermore, rural development can minimize rural-to-urban flight and thus lessen the strain on already overburdened urban infrastructure.

• OSTI ID: 478636
• Report Number(s): CONF-960958--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
BIOMASS
COMBUSTION
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
MODIFICATIONS
POWER RANGE 10-100 MW
POWER RANGE 100-1000 MW