NEWS RELEASE DECEMBER 2015
Annual Investment in New Coal-fired Power Plants Will be $200 Billion
Despite the movement away from coal in developed countries, the heavy investment in new coal-fired power generation by developing countries is creating an annual $170 billion market with some peaks of close to $200 billion over the next five years. India, Vietnam and Indonesia will be the leading purchasers. However, there will be some investment in the developed countries who are reducing the total CO2 footprint from coal. The route they are taking is to build new highly efficient coal-fired power plants to replace the high CO2 emitting existing power plants. Japan is a prime example. Dozens of new coal-fired power plants are underway in Japan.
China is slowing down its investment in new coal-fired power plants but will continue to be a leading purchaser. Coal-fired power is the key to the smog reduction program. The electric power provided by these power plants is used in commercial and residential buildings as a substitute for solid fuels burned on site which are presently creating much of the smog. The large coal-fired power plants built recently in China are more efficient than the average U.S. coal-fired power plant and have all the pollution control equipment.
Most of the new coal-fired boilers will be of the ultra supercritical design. This requires high temperatures and pressures. International suppliers of pumps, valves, piping and treatment chemicals benefit from the performance demands and the need to rely on experienced suppliers. These boiler systems will be furnished by suppliers from China, Japan and the U.S. as well as some of the Eastern European countries. Due to the new World Bank limits on funding coal-fired power plants, the international plant suppliers will be a more important funding source.
Highly efficient particulate control equipment will be utilized on all the new systems. Many will also have SO2 and NOx removal devices. The requirements for mercury reduction have spread beyond the U.S. borders. China also has set emission standards for mercury. Its Near Zero Emissions (NZE) policy is as stringent as any policy around the world.
Pulverized coal firing will be most common with circulating fluid bed combustors being used for some fuels where size reduction is challenging. Ball mills and other size reduction equipment is typically furnished by the boiler system supplier.
There are some promising technologies such as oxy-combustion which could achieve relatively low cost CO2 sequestration. In fact, a boiler firing 20 percent biomass and 80 percent coal with CO2 sequestration would be greener than wind or solar. Because there are not any emission to the air and the biomass is renewable, there would be a net decrease in greenhouse gases for every MW produced.
Due to the lack of water in many developing countries, dry cooling will be considered as an alternative to wet or hybrid cooling. However, in warmer climates, dry cooling is not efficient. Wastewater reuse is also a high priority not only in arid areas but in all countries. The reason is the increasing concern about water pollution. With zero liquid discharge and use of municipal wastewater as a water source, a power plant is reducing water pollution with every megawatt produced,
More information on the coal-fired power plant market is found at: N043 Fossil and Nuclear Power Generation: World Analysis and Forecast.
Weekly tracking of activities at each coal-fired power plant around the world except China is found at: 42EI Utility Tracking System.
Tracking of Chinese power plant additions and upgrades is found at: 42EIC Chinese Utility Plans
Air pollution control activity is analyzed at:
N027 FGD Market and Strategies
N021 World Fabric Filter and Element Market
N031 Air and Water Monitoring: World Market
N018 Electrostatic Precipitator World Market
Water related activity is analyzed in:
N029 Ultrapure Water: World Market
N005 Sedimentation and Centrifugation World Markets
