Gas turbine plants use natural gas to produce electricity by heating water to create steam that turns a turbine. It is the third most common way of producing electricity, with environmental benefits. A hybrid plant, using centralized gas turbines, can increase efficiency by up to 60%. Gas turbine plants produce less carbon dioxide, mercury, and sulfur dioxide than coal-fired power plants. However, natural gas prices can be volatile, leading to large price fluctuations.
A gas turbine plant is a plant that uses natural gas to produce electricity. In most cases this is done by using heated steam to turn a turbine. This is the third most common way of producing electricity. The environmental benefits may be one of the reasons it continues to be in the top three. At the same time, electricity generation from renewable power plants is close to fourth place and is likely to continue to gain momentum as the technology improves.
The natural gas turbine plant normally works by heating water in a boiler. This creates steam, which is then funneled through a smaller area to a turbine. The turbine spins from the pressure that the steam creates, generating an electric current through the use of electromagnets. This electricity is then carried by cables from the gas turbine plant to another location, most likely a customer of the plant. The method is generally only able to convert about a third of the heat created into electricity, which means it is very inefficient.
One way to improve the efficiency of a gas turbine plant is to build a hybrid plant, using not only traditional steam, but also centralized gas turbines. This is called a combined cycle unit. First, the natural gas-fired power plant uses the heat created by fuel combustion to directly drive a gas-fired turbine. Then, the unused or wasted heat is used to generate steam to help spin another turbine. By combining these two processes, efficiency can increase by up to 60 percent.
Despite these efficiency gains, the gas turbine plant is still a relatively rare method of generating electricity. Coal is the leader, probably because the source is so plentiful and cheap. Nuclear is next in line, probably because it’s clean and cheap once the plant is built. However, there are some advantages to the gas turbine power plant.
These benefits often boil down to cost and cleanliness. A gas turbine plant produces about 55 percent of the carbon dioxide produced by a coal-fired power plant to generate the same amount of electricity. Also, no mercury is produced and only one pound of sulfur dioxide. A coal-fired power plant, by comparison, produces nearly 2,600 pounds of sulfur dioxide and trace amounts of mercury, per billion BTU of power generation.
There are also some disadvantages to a natural gas turbine plant. In most cases, the price of natural gas can be quite volatile, especially during the winter months when the fuel is in higher demand due to space heating. For this reason, determining a cost, both for the utility company and the consumer, can be a difficult thing. This can lead to very large disparities in budget and large price fluctuations.
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