Forward View
The future role of fossil power generation
Andreas Pickard examines what the integration of renewable energy into the European power generation market means for the design and construction of new power plants.
Andreas Pickard examina qué significa la integración de las energías renovables en el mercado de generación de energía europea para el diseño y la construcción de nuevas centrales eléctricas.
Andreas Pickard überprüft, was die Integration erneuerbarer Energien in den europäischen Stromerzeugungsmarkt für den Entwurf und den Bau von neuen Kraftwerken bedeutet.
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ossil power plants with a highly versatile operating response are the key to integrating renewables into the power grid and are an essential prerequisite if the intended
rapid growth of these energy resources is to be accommodated. Operational flexibility of conventional power plants is becoming increasingly important due to ongoing shifts in Europe’s power generation market driven by the need to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2
) emissions over the long term
and the rapidly growing share of renewable energy resources. At the turn of the millennium, only about two per cent of the electric power generated in Europe came from renewables, but this figure has already risen to over 12 per cent and, by the year 2030, is expected to top 30 per cent.
given time is not entirely predictable, so as a result renewables do not lend themselves to grid control and stabilisation. Tis means that the inevitable shortfalls that occur when there is no wind or heavy cloud cover have to be made up by power generated using conventional means. One of the most important questions is how this integration of renewable energy into the European power generation market is going to develop and how this will influence the design and construction of new power plants - when the primary aim is to build a power plant capable of running profitably over its 20 year lifecycle.
Shoring-up the grid At this relatively early stage in the expansion of renewables technologies in Europe, it is important to understand how further growth in adoption is going to affect the reliability of the power supply as a whole. A long-term prognosis of anticipated renewables-based power generation within typical power demand scenarios is necessary to identify potential over-supply or shortfalls, which will need to be balanced or backed up by conventional power generation. Based on studies in Germany, which
predict that 40 per cent of the power supply will come from renewables by 2020, the main conclusion is that the majority of conventional power generating capacity will not be required continuously.
Te critical challenge for the European power
Fig. 1. The European power industry must find the right type of conventional power generation technology that can compensate for the fluctuating residual loads from renewable sources.
Because power from renewables is today given priority over electricity from other sources, it serves as a kind of variable baseload in the power supply network. Unlike the conventional providers of baseload power however, the feed-in of renewables-based power to the grid depends strongly on the time of day and the weather. Te availability of wind and solar power at any
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industry is to find the right type of conventional power generation technology that can compensate for the widely fluctuating residual loads from renewable sources. For example, combined-cycle power plants (comprising a gas turbine and a water/steam cycle with steam turbine) are among the power plant designs with the best dynamic features in the field of fossil power generation, offering much greater flexibility than nuclear and other steam power plants and helping to shore-up the grid in times of shortage. A further challenge will be how to meet the
unpredictable demand surges caused by the sudden loss of renewable power. What counts in this context is being able to start-up idle power plants as quickly as possible to bridge the gap
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