Future Paths of the European Power-Plant Infrastructure – A Newly Established Project with Emphasis on Carbon Sequestration

Jan Kjärstad (kjan@entek.chalmers.se) and Filip Johnsson (fijo@entek.chalmers.se) of the Department of Energy Conversion at Chalmers University of Technology, in S-412 96 Göteborg SWEDEN (http://www.entek.chalmers.se) outline the work they are undertaking to establish Europe-wide databases that identify and quantify sources of CO₂ from power generation.

Background

Although some countries in Europe have put much emphasis and financial support on renewable energy sources such as wind power, these technologies still suffer from high costs and limitations with respect to capacity and therefore only contribute to a small fraction of the total power generation. Existing hydropower plays a larger role and is indeed a renewable, but there are few opportunities for new hydropower, partly due to low public acceptance. In general, undeveloped land areas are associated with a high intrinsic value by the public. Nuclear power also faces problems with public acceptance and several countries are planning to phase out this technology. Energy saving is important, but as for the generation side, an increased cost of electricity is required if significant savings are to be expected.

Both in Europe and on a global scale there are large reserves of fossil fuels with, for example, coal being estimated to last several hundred years at current production rate. Capture and sequestering of CO₂ from fossil-fuelled power plants offers the possibility of a significant and relatively quick response to climate change at reasonable cost. Successful commercialisation of sequestration could therefore facilitate a transition to a future during which generation from non-fossil energy sources can grow over time. Carbon sequestration can be used in association with both power and hydrogen generation. In order for carbon sequestration to reach widespread commercialisation it is crucial to establish large scale demonstration projects, reduce capture costs, build infrastructure for transportation of the captured CO₂, establish appropriate legal framework and reach acceptance by the public. To prepare for this, initial analysis on different scenarios of future power generating systems, which involve sequestration, should be investigated.

Project

Within the so called Chalmers Environmental Initiative (see http://www.miljo.chalmers.se/cei/index.htm), a project has been initiated focusing on future paths for European power plant infrastructure with special emphasis on problems associated with large scale introduction of carbon sequestration. Although, sequestration can benefit from the existing power plant infrastructure, it is obvious that there are various options with respect to new and re-powered power plants, CO₂-transportation systems and storage options. The project takes its basis in a detailed description of the current power plant infrastructure in form of a database. The aim is to use the database as a starting point in a systems analysis of future paths towards a low CO₂-emission heat and power system. Thus, limitations and possibilities for the various paths are to be studied. Although, the focus is on a description of the power plant infrastructure, transportation alternatives as well as reported fuel and possible storage sites have been included. At present (January 2003), the database is almost completed and it is described below.

The Database

The database consists of five parts (sub-databases) representing power plants, coalfields, gas and oil fields and storage sites. These are integrated into a Geographical Information System (GIS). At present, the databases comprise EU-15 (except Greece), Norway, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Greece, as well as the other eastern European states, may be added in a later phase of the project.

The power plant database is now complete and comprises around 700 power plants with a minimum capacity of 100 MW power and/or heat. The 100 MW limit was chosen since, in practice, carbon capture will most likely only be cost efficient for units of at least several hundreds of MW. The information is compiled on a unit level and, therefore, the database includes nearly 2000 units, i.e. each power plant consists of several entries (rows) in the database. Each unit is described with respect to technology, power and/or heat generation, type of fuel, year of commission, net capacity, present status (in operation, reserve etc), major updates carried out on the plant (e.g. improved flue gas cleaning) and geographic location. In establishing the database much work was put into getting updated and correct information. This was not an obvious task due to the deregulation of the electricity market, which has resulted in a significant change in power plant structure over the last few years. The database was therefore mostly compiled through direct communication with the various utilities. Production and CO₂ emission figures for 2001 have been provided for approximately 35% of all units and these figures have been used to classify and define load hours and emissions for all units in the database.

The total generating capacity of the units included (which are in operation) amounts to 312 GWe, of which nearly 40% are fuelled with hard coal, 14% with lignite, 29% with natural gas and 16% with oil. Figure 1 shows the distribution of generation capacity based on fuel and age for plants in operation together with planned plants and plants under construction.

Figure 1: Distribution of power plants with respect to fuel and age. The figure represents existing and planned power plants in Europe with a generation capacity exceeding 100 MW (thermal and/or heat). (Click image for larger version)

The resource/storage databases are still under development and contains at present 343 producing gas and oil fields in the northern parts of Europe. Included are also 12 depleted fields with a total gross storage potential of nearly 500 Mt CO₂. Each field has been registered with respect to location, storage potential, R/P-ratio, initial pressure, degree API (for oil fields) and cost decisive parameters such as sea and drill depths. When possible, a description of the individual reservoir storage capability is included. Combined fields imply oil fields which have a confirmed initial gas cap. Only fields with a gross storage potential of at least 10 Mt CO₂ will be included in the overall analysis.

At present, the coalfield database contains information on 130 coal mines with respect to location and production figures of 2001, as well as economic and geological reserve estimates for each mine. The latter is available for most of Europe except for Germany and UK. The coal fields are divided into lignite and hard coal fields.

Figure 2 gives a principal overall GIS based representation of the content of the database. It should be noted that the illustration is simplified and in several cases one dot represents several power plant units. The GIS tool will be used to illustrate the results of various scenarios with respect to future power plant infrastructure, transport distances of captured CO₂ and storage sites.

Figure 2: Schematic illustration of the database with respect to power plants (blue dots) and various types of storage fields/sites (purple, yellow, green and black-crossed dots). The picture is somewhat simplified. (Click image for larger version)

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