The seminar has been organized for the Ph.D. Programme in Science and Management of Climate Change.
Speaker
Prof. Lincoln Pratson, Duke University, USA
We find that pending federal emission standards more than low natural gas prices are promoting a shift from coal to natural gas as the dominant fuel for U.S. power generation. Similar to a number of recent studies, we show that low natural gas prices have made 9% of current coal capacity more expensive to run than a median-cost natural gas plant. However, we find that another 56% of coal capacity would become just as costly if the pending emission standards are enacted, a much higher fraction of economic vulnerability than has previously been reported. We also present a novel set of cost plots which show that coal plants would again become the dominant least-cost generation option should the ratio of natural gas to coal prices rise slightly to 1.8 from its current level of ~1.5. If the stricter emission standards are enforced, however, natural gas plants will remain cost competitive with a majority of coal plants even if natural gas becomes more than four times as expensive as coal.
Venezia, San Giobbe - San Giobbe, Venezia -
12 Dec 2012
Website Organized by
- Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia