GE Comes Up With Smart Gas Plant For Harnessing Renewable Resources

General Electric has designed a new gas plant which they claim can solve the problems faced by other power plants while using non conventional energy resources like wind energy or solar energy. The main disadvantage of the renewable sources is the variation in availability of energy from them. For example, the solar energy drops drastically at night and the windmills provide power only when strong winds are blowing. GE claims that their new gas fired combined cycle power plant design is more efficient and compatible to the variable input levels obtained from such sources. Since the past few years the percentage of electricity generated by non carbon sources in Europe is slowly rising. Though the change is gradual, it is bound to accelerate in the near future. GE aims to make the electric grids compatible to the variable energy supply by installing these new power plants. Grid powers are desperately in need of some method to deal with this irregular supply and the new smart gas plant is the panacea for all their worries.

#-Link-Snipped-#This new plant can start up quickly. It takes less than half an hour to start this model from scratch. The plant can boost the energy generation rate to about 50 MW/min which is more than twice the current rate. GE has installed a pilot plant in Greenville, South Carolina, and it is in the test phase. However, it would take some time for its industrial and commercial application. It is expected to make a public debut sometime in 2015.

The performance of this pant will outsmart all the other power plants of its type. It has a base load fuel efficiency of around 61% which is way better than all the other gas fired combined cycle power plants. Base load power plants like nuclear power plants and coal based stations provide better base load power but are difficult to start and much slower. It takes many hours or even days to start such generators. This much time delay makes them useless for the fluctuating power of the renewable resources.

A huge investment of $ 500 million has been made by the company to establish the 510 MW plant. The novel design boasts of new, more efficient gas and steam turbines, as well as a new integrated electronic control system. Vice president of GE Thermal Products, Paul Browning, made an official announcement regarding this new venture on Thursday. He also told the media that the plant uses nickel-based super alloys. This heavy duty material is generally used in airplane engines for sustaining the huge temperature and this enables the turbines to ramp up in a short span of time. GE estimates that this awesome technology could save some power utilities worth $2.6 million per annum under normal operating conditions. The firm also claims to cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than 12,700 metric tons, with yearly fuel savings of 6.4 million cubic meters of natural gas. This sounds incredibly efficient and eco friendly to me. The generator has an output frequency of 50 Hz which implies that it can’t be used in North America but will work satisfactorily in Europe and a few Asian countries. However, GE will launch a similar plant working at 60 Hz at a later date.

Image Credit: #-Link-Snipped-#

Replies

You are reading an archived discussion.

Related Posts

Infosys top team is thinking of setting up a new IT company to focus on product development. After Mr. Narayana Murthy says final goodbye to Infosys in August, the new...
Google has brought a new feature to it's search. They have started including airline flight schedules in their search results. All you have to do is type 'Flight From source...
The National Museum of Computing has finally restored the Tunny Machine, also called the code-cracker of the Allied Forces during World War II. The rebuilding of the machine is a...
Considering the increasing need for electricity and to boost industrial development in Qatar, the Qatar government is now about to start a much awaited power plant project. The ambitious electricity...
A group of hackers tried to breach the security of the US defense contractors Lockheed martin on Saturday. The cyber attack targeted the firm’s information system that holds a lot...