Materials and processes for energy: communicating current research and technological developments (A. Méndez-Vilas, Ed.) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Current status of electricity generation in the world Professor Igor Pioro1 and Professor Pavel Kirillov2 1
Faculty of Energy Systems & Nuclear Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Str. N., Oshawa ON L1H 7K4 Canada. E-mail: igor.pioro@uoit.ca 2 State Scientific Centre of the Russian Federation - Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE) named after A.I. Leipunsky, Obninsk, Russia. E-mail: kirillov@ippe.ru Keywords: Electricity generation; power plants.
It is well known that the electrical-power generation is the key factor for advances in any other industries, agriculture and level of living (see Table 1) [1]. In general, electrical energy (see Fig. 1a) can be generated by: 1) non-renewableenergy sources such as coal, natural gas, oil, and nuclear; and 2) renewable-energy sources such as hydro, wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and marine. However, the main sources for electrical-energy generation are: 1) thermal - primary coal and secondary natural gas; 2) “large” hydro and 3) nuclear (see Fig. 1). The rest of the energy sources might have visible impact just in some countries (see Fig. 1c,e). In addition, the renewable-energy sources, for example, such as wind (see Fig. 2) and solar (see Fig. 3) and some others, are not really reliable energy sources for industrial-power generation, because they depend on Mother nature and relative costs of electrical energy generated by these and some other renewable-energy sources with exception of large hydro-electric power plants can be significantly higher than those generated by non-renewable sources. Table 1 Electrical-energy consumption per capita in selected countries (Wikipedia, 2012).
No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 * HDI
Country Norway Finland Canada USA Japan France Germany Russia European Union Ukraine China India
Watts per person 2812 1918 1910 1460 868 851 822 785 700 446 364 51
Year 2005 2005 2005 2011 2005 2005 2009 2010 2005 2005 2009 2005
HDI* (2010) 1 16 8 4 11 14 10 65 69 89 119
– Human Development Index by United Nations; The HDI is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. Countries fall into four broad human-development categories, each of which comprises ~42 countries: 1) Very high – 42 countries; 2) high – 43; 3) medium – 42; and 4) low – 42.
Table 2 lists 10 top largest power plants of the world, and Table 3 – largest power plants of the world by energy source. Figures 4-14 show photos of selected power plants of the world, mainly, hydro and renewable-energy power plants. Thermal and nuclear power plants are discussed in the following 3 chapters. It should be noted that the two following parameters are important characteristics of any power plant: 1) Overall (gross) or net efficiency1 of a plant; and 2) Capacity factor2 of a plant. Some power-plant efficiencies are listed in captions to figures, but also, will be discussed in the next chapters for thermal and nuclear power plants. Average capacity factors of various power plants are listed in Table 4.
Gross efficiency of a unit during a given period of time is the ratio of the gross electrical energy generated by a unit to the energy consumed during the same period by the same unit. The difference between gross and net efficiencies is internal needs for electrical energy of a power plant. 2 The net capacity factor of a power plant (Wikipedia, 2012) is the ratio of the actual output of a power plant over a period of time (usually, during a year) and its potential output if it had operated at full nameplate capacity the entire time. To calculate the capacity factor, take the total amount of energy a plant produced during a period of time and divide by the amount of energy the plant would have produced at full capacity. Capacity factors vary significantly depending on the type of a plant. 1
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41.0% Coal
21.3% Gas
%
15.9% Hydro
2 .8
13.5% Nuclear
Re
ne wa b le
s
5.5% Oil
(a) World (2008), in total: 20,183 TWh (based on data from www.environment.nationalgeographic.com)
49.6% Coal
68% Thermal
49.6% Coal
16% Hydro
0.01% Solar 3.0% Oil 6.5% Hydro 0.7% Other 18.8% Gas 0.4% Geothermal 0.4% Wind 1.3% Biomass
19.3% Nuclear 16% Nuclear
(b) Russia
(c) USA
3.8% Gas
44.7% Thermal
5.5% Hydro
3.9% Coal 1.8% Other fossil fuel
78.1% Nuclear 11.1% Hydro
49.8% Nuclear 1.3% Waste-to-energy & wind
(d) Ukraine
(e) France
Fig. 1 Electricity generation by energy source in the world and in selected countries (data from 2005 – 2010 presented here just for reference purposes) (Wikipedia, 2012).
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Wind Energy Production During a Fine Summer Week 600
500
MW
400
300
200
100
0
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
Time, h
Fig. 2 Power generated by 650-MWel wind turbines in the Western Part of Denmark (based on data from www.wiki.windpower.org/index.php/variations_in_energy): Shown a summer week (6 days) of wind-power generation.
Hourly Generation
4.5
Feb 19 May 09 Jun 18
4.0 3.5 3.0
kW
2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Time, h
Fig. 3 Power generated by photovoltaic system in New York State (USA) (based on data from www.burningcutlery.com/solar): Shown three mostly sunny days: February 19th; May 9th and June 18th.
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Table 2 Ten top power plants of the world by installed capacity3 (Wikipedia, 2012).
Rank 1
Plant
Country
Three Gorges Dam (see Fig. 4)
Ave. annual el. generation, TWh
Plant type
21,0001
84.5
Hydro
2
94.7
Hydro
Capacity, MWel
China
2
Itaipu Dam
Brazil / Paraguay
3
Guri Dam
Venezuela
10,235
53.4
Hydro
4
Japan
8,2123
24.6
Nuclear
5
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Plant (NPP) Tucurui Dam
Brazil
8,1254
21.4
Hydro
6
Bruce NPP
Canada
7,2765
35.3
Nuclear
7
Grand Coulee Dam
United States
6,809
21.0
Hydro
8
Longtan Dam
China
6,426
-
Hydro
9
Uljin NPP
South Korea
6,157
48.0
Nuclear
10
Krasnoyarsk Dam
Russia
6,000
20.4
Hydro
10
Zaporizhzhia NPP
Ukraine
6,000
40.0
Nuclear
Nuclear
Power
14,000
1
– another 1,500 MW under construction; – the maximum number of generating units allowed to operate simultaneously cannot exceed 18 (12,600 MW); 3 – 4,912 MW are operational, 3 units (3,300 MW) have not been restarted since the 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake; 4 – another 245 MW under construction; 5 – currently, the largest fully operating NPP in the world. 2
Table 3 Largest power plants of the world (based on installed capacity3) by energy source (Wikipedia, 2012).
Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7 9 10 11 12 13 14
Plant
Country
Three Gorges Dam Power Plant (see Fig. 4) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP Taichung Power Plant Surgut-2 Power Plant Futtsu Power Plant Eesti Power Plant Shatura Power Plant Alta Wind Energy Center Hellisheiði Power Plant (see Fig. 7) Alholmens Kraft Power Plant (see Fig. 8) Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Plant Charanka Solar Park Vasavi Basin Bridge Diesel Power Plant Aguçadoura Wave Farm (see Fig. 14)
China Japan Taiwan Russia Japan Estonia Russia United States Iceland Finland South Korea India India Portugal
Capacity, MWel 21,000 8,210 5,780 5,600 5,040 1,615 1,020 1,020 303 265 254 214 200 2
Plant type1 Hydro Nuclear Coal Fuel oil Natural gas Oil shale Peat Wind Geothermal Biofuel Tidal Solar Diesel Marine (wave)
1 – it should be noted that actually, some thermal power plants use multi-fuel options, for example, Alholmens Kraft biofuel power plant (see Fig. 4).
3
It should be noted that information provided in the table is considered to be correct within some period of time. New units can be added and/or some units can be out of service due to repairs, refurbishment, etc.; for example, currently, i.e., April of 2013, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPP is out of service after the earthquake / tsunami disaster and as the result – the severe accident at the Fukushima NPP in Japan in March of 2011.
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Fig. 4 Photo of the largest in the world by installed capacity (21,100-MWel; planned power in 2012 – 22,500 MWel) hydroelectric power plant (700 MWel × 30 + 2 × 50 MWel Francis turbines) (Yangtze River, China) (Courtesy of Chinese National Committee on Large Dams). The project costs $26 billion. Height of the gravity dam is 181 m, length – 2.335 km, top width – 40 m, base width – 115 m, flowrate – 116,000 m3/s, artificial lake capacity – 39.3 km3, surface area – 1,045 km2, length – 600 km, maximum width – 1.1 km, normal elevation – 175 m, hydraulic head – 80.6-113 m. (Source: Wikipedia).
Fig. 5 Photo of the second largest in the world 781-MWel onshore Roscoe wind-turbine power plant (Texas, USA) (photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, author/username Fredlyfish4). The plant equipped with 627 wind turbines: 406 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) 1-MWel turbines; 55 Siemens 2.3-MWel turbines and 166 General Electric (GE) 1.5-MWel turbines. The project costs more than one billion dollars, provides enough power for more than 250,000 average Texan homes and covers area of nearly 400 km2, which is several times the size of Manhattan, New York, NY, USA (Source: Wikipedia). In general, wind power is suitable for harvesting when an average air velocity is at least 6 m/s (21.6 km/h).
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Fig. 6 Areal view of the forth largest in the world 207-MWel offshore Nysted (Rødsand) wind-turbine power plant (Denmark) (photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, author Plenz). The plant equipped with ~90 turbines 2.3-MWel each. The power plant provides enough power for more than 246,000 average Danish homes. (Source: Wikipedia).
Fig. 7 Photo of the largest in the world 303-MWel and 133 MWth Hellisheiði geothermal power plant (45 MWel × 6 units + 33 MWel unit) (Iceland) (photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, original photo from www.thinkgeoenergy.com) (Source: Wikipedia).
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Fig. 8 Photo of the largest in the world 265-MWel Alholmens Kraft biofuel power plant (Finland) (photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, author A. Leppänen). The plant is a co-generation type, i.e., in addition, it provides 60-MWth district heating and 100-MWth process steam and heat for paper mill, and is equipped with Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) boiler with capacity of 500 MWth, which is the largest biomass-fired CFB boiler in the world. The operating temperature and pressure of the boiler are 545°C and 16.5 MPa, respectively. The plant is multi-fuel with primary fuel – biomass, secondary – peat and tertiary – coal. (Source: Wikipedia).
Fig. 9 Photo of the second largest in the world 240-MWel Rance tidal power plant (10 MWel × 24 units) (France) (photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, author/username Dani 7C3). The plant supplies on average 96 MW with a capacity factor of 40%, providing an annual output of ~600 GWh. The barrage is 750-m long. The plant portion of the dam is 332.5-m long. The tidal basin measures 22.5 km2. (Source: Wikipedia).
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Fig. 10 Aerial view showing portions of Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) (CA, USA) (photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, author A. Radecki). SEGS is the largest solar-energy generating plant in the world. SEGS consist of 9 concentratedsolar-thermal plants with 354 MWel installed capacity. The average gross solar output of SEGS is around 75 MW (capacity factor is ~21%). At night turbines can be powered by combustion of natural gas. NextEra claims that the SEGS power 232,500 homes and decrease pollution by 3,800 tons per year (if the electricity had been provided by combustion of oil). The SEGS have 936,384 mirrors, which cover more than 6.5 km2. (Source: Wikipedia).
Fig. 11 Arial view of the first of such kind Gemasolar - a 19.9-MWel concentrated solar power plant with a 140-m high tower and molten-salt heat-storage system (Seville, Spain) (Wikipedia, 2012) (courtesy of SENER/TORRESOL ENERGY). The plant consists of 2650 heliostats (each 120 m2 and total reflective area 304,750 m2), covers 1.95 km2 (195 ha) and produces 110 GW h annually, which equals to 30,000 t/year carbon-dioxide emission savings. This energy is enough to supply 25,000 average Spanish houses. The storage system allows the power plant to produce electricity for 15 hours without sunlight (at night or on cloudy days). Capacity factor is 75%. Solar-receiver thermal power is 120 MWth, and plant thermal efficiency is about 19%. Molten salt is heated in the solar receiver from 260 to 565°C by concentrated sun light reflected from all heliostats, which follow the sun, and transfers heat in a steam generator to water as a working fluid in a subcritical-pressure Rankine-steam-power cycle.
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Fig. 12 Photo of a typical flat-panel photovoltaic power plant (19-MWel) located near Thüngen, Bavaria, Germany (Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons; photographer OhWeh).
Fig. 13 Photo of the fifth in the world 1.2-MWel concentrated PhotoVoltaic (PV) solar-power plant (Spain) (photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, author/username afloresm). The plant has 154 two-axis tracking units, consisting of 36 PV modules each, which cover an area of 295,000 m2 with a total PV-surface area of 5,913 m2. The plant generates 2.1 GWh annually. Conversion efficiency is 12%. (Source: Wikipedia).
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Fig. 14 Photo of the first and largest in the world 2.25-MWel Aguçadoura wave power plant (Portugal) (currently, out of service) (photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, author/username P123). Pelamis machine is made up of connected sections, which flex and bend relative to one another as waves run along the structure. This motion is resisted by hydraulic rams, which pump high-pressure oil through hydraulic motors, which in turn drive electrical generators. Three machines, each rated at a peak output of 750 kWel, have been installed. The total peak power of 2.25 MWel enough to cover electrical needs of more than 1,500 Portuguese homes. However, the average output from a Pelamis machine depends on the wave resource in a particular area. According to information on the Pelamis website, it appears that the average power output for a Pelamis wave machine is about 150 kW. (Source: Wikipedia). Table 4 Average (typical) capacity factors of various power plants (Wikipedia).
No.
Power Plant type
Location
Year
USA
2010
Capacity factor, % 91
UK
2011
66
2 Combined-cycle (for details, see next chapter)
UK
2011 2007-2011
48 62
3 Coal-fired (for details, see next chapter)
UK
2011
42
4 Hydroelectric4 (see Fig. 4)
UK
2011
39
World (average)
-
44
World (range)
-
10-99
UK
2011
30
World
2008
20-40
Portugal
-
20
USA California
-
21
USA Arizona
2008
19
1 Nuclear (for details, see next chapters)
5 Wind (see Figs. 5 and 6)
6 Wave (see Fig. 14) 7 Concentrated-solar thermal (see Figs. 10 and 11)
8 Photovoltaic solar (see Fig. 12) 4
Capacity factors depend significantly on a design, size and location (water availability) of a hydroelectric power plant. Small plants built on large rivers will always have enough water to operate at a full capacity.
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No.
Power Plant type
Location
Year
USA Massachusetts
-
Capacity factor, % 12-15
UK
2011 2007-2011
5.5 8.3
Spain
-
12
9 Concentrated-solar photovoltaic (see Fig. 13)
An example of how various energy sources generate electricity in a grid can be illustrated based on the Province of Ontario (Canada). Figure 15 shows installed capacity (a) and electricity generation (b) by energy source in Ontario (Canada) (2010); and Fig. 16 shows power generated by various energy sources and their capacities (June, 2012). An analysis of Fig. 15a shows that in Ontario the major installed capacities are nuclear (31%), gas/oil (mainly natural gas) (24%), coal (17%), hydro (21%) and renewables (mainly wind) (7%). However, electricity (see Fig. 15b) is mainly generated by nuclear (55%), hydro (25%), gas/oil (mainly natural gas) (10%), coal (7%) and renewables (mainly wind) (just 3%).
24% Gas/Oil
10% Gas/Oil
17% coal 7% Coal 55% Nuclear
31% Nuclear
25% Hydro
21% Hydro 7% Wind Biomass Solar
3% Wind/Biomass/Solar
(a) Installed capacity by energy source
(b) Electricity generation by energy source
Fig. 15 Installed capacity (a) and electricity generation (b) by energy source in the Province of Ontario (Canada), 2010 (based on data from [2]).
Figure 16 shows power generated by various energy sources in Ontario (Canada) on June 19, 2012 (hot summer day, when a lot of air-conditioning was required) and corresponding to that shows capacity factors of various energy sources. An analysis of Fig. 16 shows that electricity that day from midnight till 3 in the morning was mainly generated by nuclear, hydro, gas, wind, “other” and coal. After 3 o’clock in the morning, wind power started to be decreased by Mother nature, but electricity consumption started to rise. Therefore, “fast-response” gas-fired power plants and later on, hydro and coal-fired power plants plus “other” power plants started to increase electricity generation to compensate both: decreasing in wind power and increasing demand for electricity. After 6 o’clock in the evening, energy consumption slightly dropped in the province, and at the same time, wind power started to be increased by Mother nature. Therefore, gas-fired, hydro and “other” power plants decreased energy generation accordingly (“other” plants dropped power quite abruptly, but their role in the total energy generation is very small). After 10 o’clock in the evening, energy consumption started to drop even more, therefore, coal-fired power plants as the most “dirty” plants decreased abruptly electricity generation followed by gas-fired and hydro plants. This example shows that if a grid has NPPs and/or renewable-energy sources the grid must include “fast-response” power plants such as gas- and coal-fired and/or large hydro power plants.
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Fig. 16a Power generated by various energy sources in the Province of Ontario (Canada) on June 19, 2012 (based on data from http://ieso.ca/imoweb/marketdata/genEnergy.asp).
Fig. 16b Capacity factors of various energy sources in the Province of Ontario (Canada) on June 19, 2012 (based on data from http://ieso.ca/imoweb/marketdata/genEnergy.asp).
Conclusions 1. 2.
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Major sources for electrical-energy production in the world are: 1) thermal - primary coal and secondary natural gas; 2) “large” hydro and 3) nuclear. The rest of the energy sources might have visible impact just in some countries. The renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, etc. are not really reliable sources for industrial-power generation. Therefore, a grid must include “fast-response” power plants such as gas- and coal-fired and/or large hydro power plants.
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3.
The most efficient and safe mode of operation for NPPs is an operation at full capacity and invariable load. Therefore, a grid must include “fast-response” power plants such as gas- and coal-fired and/or large hydro power plants to pick up variations in electricity demand during a day.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to express their great appreciation to unidentified authors of Wikipedia-website articles and authors of the photos from the Wikimedia Commons website, which have been used in this chapter. Also, materials provided by various companies and used in this chapter are gratefully acknowledged.
Nomenclature Subscripts el electrical th thermal Abbreviations Ave. average CA California (state) el. electrical HDI Human Development Index NPP Nuclear Power Plant NY New York (state) SEGS Solar Energy Generating System UK United Kingdom
References [1] [2]
Pioro, I., 2012. Nuclear Power as a Basis for Future Electricity Production in the World, Chapter #10 in the book: Current Research in Nuclear Reactor Technology in Brazil and Worldwide, Editors: A.Z. Mesquita and H.C. Rezende, INTECH, Rijeka, Croatia, pp. 211-250. Yatchew, A., and Baziliauskas, A., 2011. Ontario Feed-in-Tariff Programs, Energy Policy, Vol. 39, Issue 7, pp. 3885-3893.
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