politecnico di milano · 2018-03-07 · politecnico di milano school of industrial and information...

POLITECNICO DI MILANO

School of Industrial and Information Engineering

Status and Evolution of Power Generation

Technologies in Europe and United States

Supervisor: Matteo Carmelo Romano

Graduation Thesis:

Sebastian Ojeda, matricola 840712

Ziad Mansour, matricola 841180

Academic Year 2017-2018

Contents

1 Introduction 11

2 Italy 13

2.1 General Energy Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.2 Country Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.3 Energy Supply and Demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2.4 Energy Related CO2 Emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2.5 Natural Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.5.2 Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.6 Coal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2.6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2.6.2 Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2.7 Powerplant Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2.7.1 Power Generation Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2.7.2 Cleaning Technology Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

2.7.3 SCR Cleaning Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

2.7.4 FGD Cleaning Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

3 Germany 29




3.4 Energy-Related CO2 Emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

3.5 Natural Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

3.5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

3.5.2 Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

3.6 Coal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

3.6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

3.6.2 Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

1

3.7 Power Plant Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40



4 United States 45





4.5 Natural Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

4.5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

4.5.2 Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

4.6 Coal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

4.6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

4.6.2 Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54




5 Poland 61





5.5 Natural Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

5.5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

5.5.2 Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

5.6 Coal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

5.6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

5.6.2 Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69




6 United Kingdom 77





6.5 Natural Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

2

6.5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

6.5.2 Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

6.6 Coal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

6.6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

6.6.2 Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85




7 General Analysis and Conclusions 91

7.1 Total Primary Energy Supply Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

7.2 Electricity Generation Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

7.3 Emissions Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

3

List of Figures

2.1 Energy Production 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.2 Map of Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

2.3 Energy production by source, 1973-2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.4 Total Primary Energy Supply, 1973-2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.5 Total Final Consumption (TFC) by sector, 1973-2014 . . . . 18

2.6 CO2 emissions by sector, 1973-2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2.7 CO2 emissions by fuel, 1973-2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2.8 Natural gas supply by sector, 1973-2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2.9 Coal supply by sector, 1973-2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2.10 Powerplant Size and Fuel Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2.11 Power timeline Coal and Gas Installed Capacity . . . . . . . 24

2.12 Enel SCR installation Cumulative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27


3.2 Map of Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

3.3 Total primary energy supply, 1973-2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . 33


3.5 Total final consumption by sector, 1973-2011 . . . . . . . . . 34

3.6 CO2 Emissions by Sector*, 1973-2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

3.7 CO2 Emissions by Fuel*, 1973-2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

3.8 Natural gas supply by sector*, 1973-2011 . . . . . . . . . . . 38

3.9 Coal Supply by Sector*, 1973-2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40


3.11 Power Timeline Coal and Gas Installed Capacity . . . . . . . 41

3.12 Deployment of SCR Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

3.13 Deployment of FGD Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

3.14 Power percentage of SCR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

3.15 Power percentage of FGD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44


4.2 Map of United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

5

4.3 TPES, 1973-2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48


4.5 TFC by sector, 1973-2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50



4.8 Natural gas supply by sector, 1973-2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

4.9 Coal supply by sector, 1973-2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55



4.12 Coal-Fired Capacity of SCR Retrofits, By Startup Year . . . 58

4.13 Cumulative Installed capacity of Coal-Fired of SCR retrofits . 58

4.14 Cumulative Capacity of FGD on Coal Fired Plants . . . . . . 59

4.15 Power Percentage of SCR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

4.16 Power Percentage of FGD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60


5.2 Map of Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

5.3 Total Primary Energy Supply, 1973-2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . 64


5.5 Total Final Consumption (TFC) by sector, 1973-2014 . . . . 65



5.8 Natural gas consumption by sector, 1973-20145 . . . . . . . . 68

5.9 Coal consumption by sector, 1973-2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70



5.12 Cumulative Installed Capacity of FGD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

5.13 Cumulative Installed Capacity of CFB . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

5.14 EPower Percentage of FGD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76


6.2 Map of the United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

6.3 Energy production by source, 1973-2010 (Projected 2020) . . 81

6.4 Total Final Consumption (TFC) by sector, 1973-2010 (Pro-

jected to 2020) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

6.5 CO2 emissions by sector*, 1973 to 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . 82



6.8 Cumulative Installed capacity of FGD methods . . . . . . . . 88

6.9 Power Percentage of FGD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

6

7.1 Total Primary Energy Supply By Fuel Genera Comparison . 92

7.2 TPES per capita General Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

7.3 Electricity Generation by Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

7.4 Electricity consumption per capita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

7.5 Sources of CO2 Emissions Sector (MTCO2) . . . . . . . . . . 95

7.6 Sources of CO2 Emissions by Fuel (MTCO2) . . . . . . . . . 95

7.7 Emissions per capita (TCO2/cap) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

7

List of Tables

2.1 Selected powerplants steam parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2.2 SCR Installation Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2.3 Plants equipped with FGD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27



5.2 Timeline of Instalation of FGD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

5.3 Timeline of Instalation of CFB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

6.1 Timeline of installation of FGD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

9

Chapter 1

Introduction

Electricity generation through the use of fossil fuels has been a foundational

pillar for modern society. Over two thirds of the world’s electricity is gener-

ated using fossil fuels. The electricity generation sector was designed around

fossil fuels with power plants constructed in locations with efficient access to

fossil fuels and cooling water. The electricity production technology in every

country is driven by its natural resource availability and infrastructure to

exploit it, a natural consequence of this is that different countries will have

different energy production industries based on different fossil fuels and im-

ports even if they are close between each other. This is the case for countries

like Poland, Germany and Italy which being close and sharing borders have

a very different distribution on their use of fossil fuels and electricity gener-

ation.

At the same time, this unequal distribution of fossil fuel usage will have

different environmental effects for the countries, for countries like Poland

where the majority of the electricity generation come from Coal fired pow-

erplants, the environmental effects are higher than for countries like Italy

where the majority of fossil electricity generation comes from Natural Gas

fired powerplants.

In the last three decades, the environmental concerns increased, and regu-

lations on clean electricity generation technology where pushed by the gov-

ernment, affecting the industry on equal level for all European countries.

This regulations have different effects on different countries given their dis-

tribution of natural resources. Direct consequence of this changes can be

noticed in different ways, most importantly in the dramatic decrease of build-

ing new coal powerplants, the closure of existing coal powerplants, the con-

11

version of old coal units to natural gas, the building of new more efficient

Natural Gas fired plants and the installation of gas cleaning technology.

Also, the regulations boosted the evolution of natural gas import infras-

tructure to satisfy the growing natural gas demand thanks to the growing

market.

In the following document, we are going to discuss selected countries from

Europe and also USA and make an analysis on power generation trends and

how the sector and the emission control regulation evolved over time for the

different markets.

12

Chapter 2

Italy

2.1 General Energy Policy

Energy production: 35.5 Mtoe

(biofuels and waste 32.2%, oil 15.9%, natural gas 15.6%, geothermal 15.4%,

hydro 10.6%, solar 6.6%, wind 3.6%, coal 0.1%), +17.7% since 2005

TPES: 150.7 Mtoe

(natural gas 36.7%, oil 34.2%, biofuels and waste 9.7%, coal 8.2%, geother-

mal 3.6%, electricity net imports 2.6%, hydro 2.5%, solar 1.6%, wind 0.8%),

-19.1% since 2005

TPES per capita: 2.5 toe

(IEA average: 4.5 toe)

TPES per GDP: 0.08 toe/USD 1 000 PPP

(IEA average: 0.11 toe/USD 1 000 PPP)

Electricity generation: 280.7 TWh

(natural gas 38.3%, coal 16.6%, hydro 15.6%, solar 9.3%, biofuels and waste

7.8%, wind 5.2%, oil 4.8%, geothermal 2.2%), -5.4% since 2005

Electricity and heat generation per capita: 5.6 MWh (IEA average:

9.9 MWh)

13

Figure 2.1: Energy Production 2015

2.2 Country Overview

Italy, with the exception of the plain in the north, is a largely mountain-

ous country that runs from the Alps to the central Mediterranean Sea. It

includes the large islands of Sicily and Sardinia as well as about 70 minor

islands. Its surface area is 301.300km2, 165.200km2 of which is arable. Italy

is home to almost 61.6 million inhabitants of whom 22 million are in active

employment. Italian is the official language, but there are German-, French-

and Slovenian-speaking minorities in some regions. The Italian Republic is

governed by a bicameral national legislature, a Senate and a Chamber of

Deputies.

The country is organized into 20 Regions, including four autonomous Re-

gions and two autonomous Provinces, all of which are part of the consti-

tutional structure of the country. In recent years, Italy has experienced

a rapid devolution of legislative and regulatory powers to the Regions. In

2001, constitutional amendments provided a new framework for sharing reg-

ulatory competences, including energy, between the State and the Regions,

in particular in areas of concurrent legislation (between the State and the

Regions) and those that are now of the exclusive competence of the Regions.

14

Figure 2.2: Map of Italy

15

2.3 Energy Supply and Demand

Italy produced 35.5 million tonnes of oil-equivalent (Mtoe) of energy in 2015.

Energy production has been on an upward trend since 2001, and has in-

creased by 17.7% from 2005 to 2015. Before 2001, production was mildly

volatile albeit declining from a 1997 local peak of 30.4 Mtoe. Renewable

energy development is the main driver of recent production growth.

Renewable energy represented 68.4% of total energy production in 2015, up

from 61.9% in 2010 and 46.4% in 2005. In 2015, biofuels and waste ac-

counted for 32.2%, followed by geothermal (15.4%), hydro (10.6%), solar

(6.6%) and wind (3.6%). Solar, wind, and biofuels and waste have experi-

enced the strongest development over the past decade, with various spurs

in production. The most notable among them was solar energy, stimulated

by generous subsidies, which increased production by 259% during 2010-11.

Approximately a third of energy production is from crude oil (15.9%) and

natural gas (15.6%) combined, while coal production is negligible at 0.1%.

Natural gas production was 43.9% lower in 2015 than in 2005 as resources are

depleting, down from 32.7% of total production. Crude oil production was

9.8% lower over the ten years. Italy’s total primary energy supply (TPES)

was 150.7 Mtoe in 2015. It has declined by 19.1% over the past ten years,

down from 186.4 Mtoe in 2005 (fig. 2.4).

TPES has declined despite the increase in energy production, owing to falling

domestic demand. Fossil fuels accounted for 79.1% of TPES in 2015, broken

down in natural gas (36.7%), oil (34.2%) and coal (8.2%). Over the past

decade, the fossil fuels share has shrunk from 89.8% of TPES, as renewable

energy has gained a larger share of the total energy mix. Energy from oil

was 35.7% lower in 2015 than in 2005, while natural gas and coal were 21.7%

and 24.6% below, respectively.

16

Figure 2.3: Energy production by source, 1973-2015

Figure 2.4: Total Primary Energy Supply, 1973-2015

Renewables represented 18.2% of TPES in 2015, up from 7.9% ten years

earlier. Biofuels and waste contributed 9.7% to TPES in 2015, followed by

geothermal (3.6%), hydro (2.5%), solar (1.6%) and wind (0.8%).

17

Figure 2.5: Total Final Consumption (TFC) by sector, 1973-2014

2.4 Energy Related CO2 Emissions

Energy-related CO2 emissions were 319.7 million tonnes (Mt) in 2014. Emis-

sions were then 17.9% lower than in 1990 and 29.9% lower than a peak of

456.3 Mt in 2005 (fig. 2.6). Emissions have been declining in line with falling

energy supply, brought on by the economic downturn, the contracting man-

ufacturing sector, and the increased share of renewables in the energy mix,

notably in the power sector.

Figure 2.6: CO2 emissions by sector, 1973-2014

The power generation sector, which used to be the largest CO2 emitter in

Italy, was in 2014 the second-largest emitting sector with 103.4 MtCO2 or

32.3% of the total. The transport sector accounted for 105.4 MtCO2 or 33%

of the total emissions, and was the largest emitting sector.

Households accounted for 13.1%, while the manufacturing and construction

18

Figure 2.7: CO2 emissions by fuel, 1973-2014

sector, commercial and other services sector (including agriculture and fish-

eries) and other energy industries (including refining) emitted 11.2%, 7.1%

and 3.2% of the total, respectively. In the years since 1990, emissions in

power generation, manufacturing and construction, and other energy indus-

tries, and from households have declined, while emissions from commercial

services and transport have increased.

However, since the peak in 2005, all sectors have reduced emissions. Power

generation, other energy industries and manufacturing with construction

have emitted respectively 34.8%, 45.9% and 46.1% less in 2013 compared to

2005.

Transport sector emissions were 14.3% lower, while emissions from house-

holds and commercial services were down by 29.8% and 22.2%, in that order.

Oil and oil products accounted for 45.5% of energy-related CO2 emissions

in Italy in 2013, while 36.7% came from natural gas and 16.2% from coal.

Emissions from industrial and non-renewable municipal waste were 1.6% of

total energy-related emissions.

The driving force behind a decline in CO2 emissions from fuel combustion

has been a reduction in oil consumption, followed by reduction in natural

gas in recent years. Emissions from oil were 40.5% lower in 2014 compared

to 1990 and 35.9% compared to 2005. Emissions from coal were 8.4% lower

in 2014 compared to 1990 and 18.8% lower compared to 2005. Emissions

from natural gas have increased over time, up by 34.7% since 1990, albeit

27.8% lower since 2005.

19

2.5 Natural Gas

Key data (2015 estimated)

Natural gas production: 6.8 bcm

-43.9% since 2005

Net imports: 61.0 bcm,

-20.8% since 2005

Share of natural gas: 36.7% of TPES and 38.3% of electricity generation

Consumption by sector (2014): 61.9 bcm

(power generation 35.2%, residential 29.9%, industry 17.9%, commercial

and public services, including agriculture and fishing 12.1%, other energy

industries 2.9%, transport 2.1%)

2.5.1 Overview

Italy’s natural gas market is the third-largest in Europe. Over the past six

years the country has invested significantly in new infrastructure but is now

experiencing a period of falling demand as the economic crisis continues to

hurt and demand for gas-fired power is offset by the growth in electricity gen-

erated from renewable sources and energy efficiency. Furthermore, despite

the implementation of many new measures to facilitate the emergence of a

competitive gas market, end-user prices remain high by European standards

while wholesale prices appear to be converging with other markets.

2.5.2 Supply

Natural gas is the largest fuel in Italy’s energy sector, representing 36.7%

of total primary energy supply (TPES) and 38.3% of electricity generation

in 2015. Natural gas supply was 67.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2015,

equivalent to 55.3 million tonnes of oilequivalent (Mtoe). The supply of

natural gas increased by 9.1% in 2015 from the year before, but was 21.7%

lower than a peak of 86.3 bcm in 2005. Italy produced 6.8 bcm of natural

gas in 2015, or 10% of domestic supply. Production peaked in 1994 and has

been falling since, as resources depleted; it was 56.1% lower in 2015 than in

2005. At present, there are 719 active gas well assigned to 26 concessions.

20

Figure 2.8: Natural gas supply by sector, 1973-2014

2.6 Coal


Production: negligible

Hard coal imports: 19.2 Mt

-20.5% since 2005

Share of coal: 8.2% of TPES and 16.6% of electricity generation.

Inland consumption (2014): power generation 80.4%, industry 12.7%,

coke ovens and other transformations 7.0%

2.6.1 Overview

Coal accounted for 8% of total primary energy supply (TPES) and 17% of

electricity supply in 2014. Over the long term, coal use is expected to decline

as older, less efficient power plants are shut down and the electricity sector

shifts towards even more natural gas and renewable energy.

2.6.2 Supply

Total coal supply was 12.4 million tonnes of oil-equivalent (Mtoe) or 19.1

million tonnes (Mt) in 2015, which is 2.5% lower than in 2014. Italy’s coal

supply was on a steady rise from the mid-1990s to the peak of 16.7 Mtoe

in 2006. During 2009 and 2010, supply declined by 25% in total, and a

drop in the industry sector of almost 50% in one year (2009). Consumption

recovered in the following two years before declining again since 2013.

21

Figure 2.9: Coal supply by sector, 1973-2014

Italy relies on imported hard coal as domestic production is negligible (73

kilotonnes of hard coal in 2015, compared to over 19 000 kilotonnes that was

imported). The country does not produce or import brown coal. Hard coal

imports in 2014 were mainly from the United States (26.8%), Russian Fed-

eration (20.6%) and Indonesia (17.0%) with the remainder from Colombia,

South Africa, Spain, Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Ukraine

and Croatia.

Imports from Spain started in 2006, from Kazakhstan in 2013 and from

Croatia in 2014, while the other countries have been exporting coal to Italy

for decades.

The only known coal source in Italy is located in the Sulcis Iglesiente basin,

in southwest Sardinia. In August 2013, the region of Sardinia in collab-

oration with the Ministry of Economic Development (MSE), ENEA and

Sotacarbo granted EUR 60 million towards a new initiative, the aIntegrated

Sulcis Projecta. This aim of this initiative is to develop a cluster of in-

novative combustion technologies (in particular oxy-combustion) integrated

with enhanced coalbed methane recovery (ECBM) with carbon capture and

storage (CCS) technologies to exploit the seams of non-extractable coal, by

recovering the methane contained in it (CIAB, 2014).

2.7 Powerplant Data Analysis

For Italy, the biggest source of energy production is biofuels and waste fol-

lowed by an equal contribution of Natural gas and Oil. Italy is characterized

by a negligible Coal energy production due to very low internal production

22

and imports. The electricity Generation industry is mainly natural gas based

which indicates that many of the gas powerplants are very Old.

During the last two decades, there has been a great effort in the repowering

and construction of new powerplants in Italy.

2.7.1 Power Generation Trends

As can be expected, the sizes of powerplants are scattered in the whole

spectrum of sizes, but given the stability of the fuel supply most of the

powerplants are over the size of 600 MW. The total approximate number of

powerplants in Italy is around 62, and the number of powerplants over 600

MW is 42. The total number of powerplants between 0 and 600 MW is 20,

this show that the energy production is concentrated in the big plants and

that the smaller powerplants have a very low participation in the energy

market.

The few Coal powerplants existing in Italy can be found in the sizes over

800 MW which sum in total 5 of them, several of this projects has been

converted to Natural Gas firing, partially or totally.

Figure 2.10: Powerplant Size and Fuel Distribution

The trend of cumulative Natural Gas installed capacity show an initial

growth that started on the 60’ and stabilized on the 70’. This relative halt

lasted for somehow 20 years until the 90’ which witnessed a sharp increase

of installed capacity following an exponential trend that lasts until around

23

2008.

The presence of Coal powerplants in Italy is very small, the installation of

new capacity show a small increase in the 80’ that stabilized in the 90’, the

current trend for coal powerplants is to shut down or convert the coal fired

units to natural gas.

Figure 2.11: Power timeline Coal and Gas Installed Capacity

In the next table some examples of Italian powerplants can be found with

it’s parameters.

Table 2.1: Selected powerplants steam parameters

24

2.7.2 Cleaning Technology Evolution

The emission standards for air pollutants from industrial processes were

first set in a Decree of the President of the Italian Republic in 1988. The

standards were later supplanted by Legislative Decree 152/2006 which im-

plemented EU Directive 2001/81/EC. This came into force in April 2006.

In 2014, Decree No. 46 was issued. The emission limit values foreseen by

this Decree came into force in January 2016.

The current emission limits for coal-fired power plants are dependent on a

number of factors such as plant age and thermal capacity. However, for ex-

isting plants with a rated thermal input equal to or greater than 300 MWth,

current legal limits are:

• SO2 200 mg/m3

• NOx 200 mg/m3

• Particulates 20 mg/m3

During the past decade, through heavy investment, Italy has significantly

reduced its emissions of SO2, NOx and particulates emanating from the

coal-fired power sector. The country now has a number of power plants in

operation that are cleaner and more efficient than many others in Europe.

Nine of the main plants have European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme

(EMAS) certification.

This equates to around 9.5 GW of installed generating capacity (around

85% of Italy’s coal-fired generating capacity). The result of this investment

in modern environmental control systems has significantly reduced the levels

of classic pollutants emitted.

Over the past decade, operators of coal-fired power plants have undertaken

emission reduction programmes and systematically improved control sys-

tems. For example, ENEL’s environmental strategy has focused on reduc-

ing NOx emissions via the installation of low NOx combustion systems

coupled with SCR, reducing SO2 emissions through the retrofitting of FGD

systems, and switching from ESPs to fabric filters/bag houses in order to

further reduce particulate emissions. Between 1990 and 2012, these moves

significantly reduced emissions from ENEL coal-fired power plants.

2.7.3 SCR Cleaning Technology

Italy being more characterized by Natural Gas powerplants has lower CO2

and other pollutants emissions compared to countries where Coal has a more

25

important presence. The Cleaning technology effort is not as critical as in

other countries, but some of the biggest energy companies like Enel Spa

had implemented SCR and FGD technology on their powerplants (Coal and

Natural Gas).

For Enel, the trend of installation for SCR started on 1996.

Table 2.2: SCR Installation Timeline

26

Figure 2.12: Enel SCR installation Cumulative

2.7.4 FGD Cleaning Technology

Examples of FGD emission control systems deployed at major Italian power

plants are shown in the next table.

Table 2.3: Plants equipped with FGD

27

Chapter 3

Germany


Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES): 311.8 Mtoe

(oil 32.7%, coal 24.8%, natural gas 22.3%, renewables 11.3%, nuclear 9%),

-7.4% since 2000

TPES per capita: 3.8 toe (IEA average: 4.6 toe)

TPES per gross domestic product (GDP): 0.11 toe per USD 1 000

GDP purchasing power parity (PPP) (IEA average: 0.14 toe per USD 1 000

GDP PPP)

Electricity generation: 602.4 TWh (coal 45.1%, renewables 22%, nuclear

17.9%, natural gas 13.9%, oil 1.1%), +5.3% since 2000

Electricity consumption per capita: 9 MWh (IEA average: 10.6 MWh)

Inland energy production: 124.2 Mtoe (coal 37.5%, renewables 28.3%, nu-

clear 22.7%, natural gas 8.8%, oil 2.8%), -8.2% since 2002.

29



Germany is the fourth-largest country in the European Union (after France,

Spain and Sweden), and shares borders with Denmark, Poland, the Czech

Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Nether-

lands. Germany has a largely temperate and marine climate. Its terrain is

a mix of lowlands in the northern part of the country, along with highlands

in the centre and the Bavarian Alps in the southern region.

The country has almost 2 400 km of coastline along the Baltic and North

Seas. Since the reunification of Germany with the German Democratic Re-

public (East Germany) in 1990, Germany’s population has remained flat and

is forecast to decline in the future. The largest city is Berlin, the capital,

which has grown to a population of 3.5 million. In 1999, many governmental

institutions, ministries and embassies were moved to Berlin from Bonn, the

former capital.

Other large metropolitan areas in Germany include the Rhein-Ruhr area,

Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Leipzig. Germany is a federal democ-

racy divided into 16 regions or LAnder. It has a bicameral parliament with

a federal assembly (Bundestag) and federal council (Bundesrat). The 614

members of the Bundesrat are elected by popular vote and serve four-year

terms.

30

Figure 3.2: Map of Germany

31


Total primary energy supply (TPES) was 311.8 million tonnes of oil equiv-

alent (Mtoe) in 2011, its lowest level in 30 years. Germany’s energy supply

has been on a downward trend over the past three decades, albeit at a mod-

est rate. Since 2000, TPES has declined at an annualised rate of 0.7%,

ranging from a high of 346.7 Mtoe in 2001 to a low of 311.8 Mtoe in 2011.

The federal government anticipates that energy supply will continue to fall

over the following two decades, down to 216.7 Mtoe in 2030. Germany has

the third-highest level of TPES among IEA members, behind the United

States and Japan. Among IEA Europe members, Germany recorded the

highest level of total energy supply in 2011, followed by France and the

United Kingdom. However, TPES per capita was 3.8 tonnes of oil equiv-

alent (toe) in 2011, which is lower than the IEA average of 4.6 toe per capita.

Oil is the most significant source of energy in Germany. In 2011, it con-

tributed 101.9 Mtoe to TPES, representing 32.7% of the total. Since 2000,

energy from oil has decreased by 18.3% from 124.7 Mtoe, with its share in

the energy mix falling from 37%. Over the next two decades, the government

has forecast that oil use will continue to decline; nonetheless, it will remain

the most significant source of energy at 28.2% of TPES in 2030. Energy from

coal and gas amounted to 77.4 Mtoe and 69.6 Mtoe in 2011, respectively.

Coal represented 24.8% of TPES, while natural gas had a 22.3% share.

Over the 11 years since 2000, the share of both coal and natural gas in

the energy mix has remained relatively stable, with energy from these fuels

falling in line with TPES. Government projections indicate that natural gas

will remain an important source of energy for the next two decades, increas-

ing to 25% of TPES by 2030.

Conversely, energy from coal will decline by two-thirds to represent only

12% of total supply in 2030. Energy from renewable sources represented

11.3% of TPES in 2011, 8.5% of which was from biofuels and waste (26.6

Mtoe). Renewable energy has experienced strong growth in the past ten

years, with the share of biofuels in the energy mix up from 2.3% in 2000,

while wind and solar have been boosted from negligible levels to around 1%

each in 2011.

In the next 18 years, renewables are expected to make a significant shift in

the energy mix, up to 33.2% of the TPES in 2030, with biofuels at 21.6%,

wind at 5.6%, solar at 3.2%, geothermal at 1.9%, and hydro remaining at

around 1%. Nuclear energy totalled 28.2 Mtoe in 2011, accounting for 9% of

32

TPES. This is a decrease of 36.3% from 44.2 Mtoe in 2000, and down from a

13.1% share in the energy mix. By 2022, nuclear energy will be phased out

in Germany as the government plans to progressively shut down all nuclear

reactors.

Figure 3.3: Total primary energy supply, 1973-2011


Compared to IEA member countries, Germany ranks at a median level with

regard to a share of fossil fuels in TPES, at 79.7% in 2011. With respect to

nuclear penetration, Germany is the third-lowest after the Netherlands and

Japan, among the 16 IEA members with nuclear energy production in their

supply mix. It has the seventh largest share of biofuels in TPES among all

33

IEA members.

Inland energy production in Germany was 124.2 Mtoe in 2011, which ac-

counts for 39.8% of total energy supply. Germany is a significant producer

of coal, with 46.5 Mtoe in 2011 or 37.5% of total energy production. It

is the largest producer of lignite among IEA member countries, and third

only to the United States and Australia in hard coal production. Nuclear

energy represented 22.7% of total production in 2011, followed closely by

biofuels and waste at 21.5%. Natural gas represented 8.8% of total energy

produced. Inland energy production has decreased by 8.2% since 2000. Con-

versely, energy from biofuels and other renewable sources has experienced

strong growth, increasing from a total of 8% of production in 2000 to 28.3%

in 2011. This includes hydro, which has remained a constant share of 1%.

Figure 3.5: Total final consumption by sector, 1973-2011

3.4 Energy-Related CO2 Emissions

In 2011, CO2 emissions from fuel combustion accounted for the largest share

(81.5%) of GHG emissions in Germany. Since 1990, the share of emissions

from fuel combustion has increased from 76.2% of total GHG to 81.5%, in-

dicating that CO2 emissions from fuel combustion have declined at a slower

rate compared to total emissions. Germany has reduced its CO2 emissions

from fuel combustion by 21.3% since 1990, from 949.7 million tonnes (Mt)

in 1990 to 747.6 Mt in 2011.

More than 75% of CO2 emissions from fuel combustion are from coal and

oil usage: 41.6% and 34.2% respectively in 2011. CO2 emissions from these

fuels have declined since 1990, with emissions from coal down by 38.4% and

34

emissions from oil reduced by 20.6%. Overall, the share of coal and oil in

emissions from fuel combustion has decreased from 87.1% in 1990. The re-

duction in emissions from coal and oil coincides with a fall in total energy

sourced from these fossil fuels over the past two decades, from 249.9 Mtoe

in 1990 to 179.3 Mtoe in 2011.

Natural gas consumption was responsible for approximately 163 Mt CO2 in

2011, representing 21.8% of energy-related emissions. This is 38% higher

than in 1990 (118 Mt CO2), when natural gas accounted for 12.4% of the

total. Natural gas applications and usage have developed and broadened

over the years, resulting in higher emissions from this source. A similar

trend is exhibited by the usage of waste for energy, with total emission from

this source up from 4.5 Mt CO2 in 1990 to 17.6 Mt CO2 in 2011 reflecting

greater use of this energy source.

Figure 3.6: CO2 Emissions by Sector*, 1973-2011

35

Figure 3.7: CO2 Emissions by Fuel*, 1973-2011

The power generation sector accounted for 43.4% of energy-related emis-

sions in 2011. Electricity and heat generation in Germany is moderately

CO2-intensive as coal, natural gas, and oil represent more than 50% of

energy sources used in generation. Over the past two decades, the share

of power generation in CO2 emissions from fuel combustion has increased

slightly from 39.1% in 1990, indicating that the electricity and heat gener-

ation sector has reduced emissions at a somewhat slower rate compared to

a reduction in total GHG.

A similar trend was exhibited by the transport sector, which accounted for

19.9% of energy-related emissions in 2011, up from 16.6% in 1990. Emis-

sions from the transport sector decreased by 5.6% since 1990 and total CO2

emissions from fuel combustion fell by 21.3% over the same period. The

manufacturing industry and construction sectors accounted for 15.3% of

COa emissions from fuel combustion in 2011, down from 18.9% in 1990.

Commercial and other services also reduced their share of energy-related

emissions over the past two decades, from 12% in 1990 to 9.5% in 2011. The

residential sector was the source of 11.9% of energy emissions in 2011, which

is slightly lower than 13.4% in 1990.

3.5 Natural Gas

Key data (2011)

Production: 10.9 Mtoe, -31.1% since 2000


Imports: 75.1 Mtoe, +23% since 2000

36

Exports: 14.7 Mtoe, +249.6% since 2000

Inland consumption: 69.6 Mtoe (industry 30.6%, residential 28.9%, power

generation 26.4%, commercial services and other 13.2%, transport 0.9%)

3.5.1 Overview

Germany is the second largest natural gas market in IEA Europe, with ro-

bust import and export infrastructure, large storage capacity and a domestic

production industry. The country is at the heart of Europe’s natural gas

supply industry.

3.5.2 Supply

At the geographical centre of Europe, Germany has good access to natural

gas supplies from the North Sea, the Netherlands and Russia. It also pro-

duces about a sixth of its gas supplies, with nearly all reserves located in

Lower Saxony, between the Dutch border and the Elbe River. Germany’s

gas reserves are the fourth-largest in the European Union, behind Norway,

the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. According to the Oil Gas Jour-

nal (OGJ), natural gas reserves in Germany were 175 billion cubic metres

(bcm) in 2011, down from 351 bcm in 1990. Natural gas supply amounted

to 69.6 Mtoe (86 bcm) in 2011, representing 22.3% of total primary energy

supply (TPES). Over 11 years since 2000, supply of gas has fallen by 3.1%,

which is lower than the 7.4% decline in TPES over the same period.

Indigenous production was 14.8 bcm in 2011, which is relatively unchanged

compared to 2010 and 32.7% lower than in 2000. Production accounted for

17.2% of total gas demand in 2011, also down from 25.1% of total consump-

tion in 2000. Natural gas production has been on a steady decline since the

beginning of the century, owing to a natural fall-off in extraction from gas

fields and declining gas reserves. Government forecasts indicate that indige-

nous production will continue to decline over the next 20 years, as resources

are further depleted. To date, unconventional gas extraction in Germany

has been limited to exploratory drilling.

37

Figure 3.8: Natural gas supply by sector*, 1973-2011

3.6 Coal

Key data (2011) Production: 46.5 Mtoe (65.9 Mtce), -23.2% since 2000

Imports: 32.7 Mtoe (42 Mtce), +47% since 2000

Exports: negligible

Share of coal: 24.8% of TPES and 45.1% of electricity generation

Consumption: 77.4 Mtoe (power generation 81.8%, industry 8.5%, other

energy 7.6%, residential 1.6%, commercial and other services 0.5%)

3.6.1 Overview

Germany has considerable resources of hard coal and lignite making this

the country’s most important indigenous source of conventional energy. The

government has committed to phasing out subsidised hard coal production

by 2018. On the other hand, lignite, the least-cost fossil fuel source, will

continue to play a major role in German energy supply for the foreseeable

future.

3.6.2 Supply

Coal, hard coal and lignite contributed 77.4 million tonnes of oil equivalent

(106.5 million tonnes of coal equivalent) to Germany’s TPES in 2011. This

38

represents about a quarter of TPES and a decline of 8.8% since 2000, with

the largest dip during the 2009 recession. Since 2009, coal supply has re-

covered to just below 2008 levels. The overall trend in hard-coal production

and consumption in Germany is a declining one; conversely, lignite produc-

tion is thriving and continues to provide a major source of energy. A study

prepared by Prognos, the Institute of Energy Economics of the University

of Cologne (EWI) and Institute of Economic Structures Research (GWS)

indicates that total supply of hard coal will be a third of what it was in

2011 by 2030, as demand for hard coal falls.

In 2011, Germany produced 176.5 Mt of lignite, making it the largest pro-

ducer of lignite in the world. Production of lignite accounted for 94% of

all coal produced while the remainder was hard coal. Production of lignite

has increased by 5% since 2000. The Federal Institute for Geosciences and

Natural Resources (BGR) estimates that lignite resources in Germany total

approximately 36.5 billion tonnes.

Hard coal production in 2011 was a little less that 12.1 Mt, of which 4.8

Mt was coking coal and 7.3 Mt was steam coal. This represented a signif-

icant decline compared to 2000, when hard coal production was 37.4 Mt

or 18% of coal produced. The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Nat-

ural Resources (BGR) estimates that hardcoal resources in Germany total

approximately 83 billion tonnes. 20 Hard coal reserves, however, i.e. com-

mercially usable deposits, total only 48 Mt for 2011. This is the amount

that the BGR expects to be extracted with subsidies until the termination

of hard coal production in 2018.

There have been six hard-coal mine closures since 2005: Lohberg/Osterfeld,

Walsum, Lippe, Ost, Saar and West. At present, three hard-coal mines re-

main in operation a two in the Ruhr District and one near Ibbenburen. The

remaining mines are planned to be closed in 2015 and 2018.

39

Figure 3.9: Coal Supply by Sector*, 1973-2011

3.7 Power Plant Data Analysis

The main source of power generation for Germany is coal which generates

37% of the Electricity, followed by renewable energy and nuclear, Natural

gas comes in the fourth place with 9%. The previous behavior is evidence

of natural resource availability and location of Germany in relation with the

rest of Europe. Most of the Natural gas and Coal for energy production in

Germany is imported.


The sizes of powerplants in Germany is totally scattered in all the spec-

trum of sizes, the approximate total number of plants is 95, for plants below

1000MW we have an average of 5 plants in each 100MW interval, taking in

account both Coal and Natural Gas.

For sizes above 1000MW Coal power plants are the overwhelming majority

compared to Natural Gas, with a number of 20 powerplants, this shows how

the energy production in Germany is dominated by Coal, and renewable

energies, and that natural gas has a lower contribution that is not negligible

when it comes to power plants with a capacity lower than 1000MW.

40


As expected from the Coal consumption of Germany the number of Coal

powerplants has grown since the 50’ and maintained a somehow stable

growth until the early 70’ where the number of new powerplants halted.

Natural Gas Powerplant had a very small growth over time, showing the

secondary role of Natural gas in Germany energy production.

Figure 3.11: Power Timeline Coal and Gas Installed Capacity

In the next table some examples of German powerplants can be found with

41

it’s parameters.



In 1984, in response to growing concerns about the destruction of German

forests from acid rain, Germany enacted stringent new regulations requir-

ing the installation of FGD systems on all large Coal-fired plants already in

service and also the use of SCR systems on large coal-fired power plants as

part of its acid rain control program.

Figure 3.12: Deployment of SCR Systems

42

Figure 3.13: Deployment of FGD Systems

The SCR Installed capacity is around 30 GW in total which is equal to 44%

of the total power plant capacity in Germany. While for FGD the total in-

stalled capacity is around 47 MW which is equal to 69% of the total German

power plants capacity.

Figure 3.14: Power percentage of SCR

43

Figure 3.15: Power percentage of FGD

44

Chapter 4

United States


Energy production: 1 859.3 Mtoe

(natural gas 30.4%, coal 25.8%, oil 24.8%, nuclear 11.5%, biofuels and waste

4.9%, hydro 1.3%, wind 0.8%, geothermal 0.5%, solar 0.1%), +13.8% since

2003

TPES: 2 186.7 Mtoe

(oil 35.9%, natural gas 27.8%, coal 19.9%, nuclear 9.8%, biofuels and waste

4.2%, hydro 1.1%, wind 0.7%, geothermal 0.4%, solar 0.1%), -3.3% since

2003 TPES per capita: 6.9 toe (IEA average: 4.5 toe)



Electricity generation: 4 274.5 TWh

(coal 40.2%, natural gas 26.9%, nuclear 19.2%, hydro 6.3%, wind 4%, bio-

fuels and waste 1.7%, oil 0.8%, geothermal 0.4%, solar 0.4%), +5.4% since

2003

Electricity and heat generation per capita: 13.9 MWh (IEA average:

10 MWh)

45



The United States remains the largest economy in the world, with a gross

domestic product (GDP) in current prices (2013) of USD 16 800 trillion or

USD 51.7 thousand per capita. It covers an area of 9 826 million square

kilometres, with a population of 318.9 million (estimated) in 2014, 13% of

whom were born elsewhere. The major population areas are New York City

and northern New Jersey with 20.4 million inhabitants on the east coast;

Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana with 13.4 million on the west coast;

and the Chicago area with 9.7 million in the eastern centre of the country.

The civilian labour force stood at 155.4 million in 2013, 7.3% of which were

unemployed. The population density of the United States is relatively low,

with 31.9 inhabitants per square kilometre. The country is a union of 50

states and one federal district, the District of Columbia.

46

Figure 4.2: Map of United States


Total primary energy supply (TPES) in the United States was 2 186.7 mil-

lion tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in 2013. The most significant fuel in

TPES is oil with a share of 35.9%, followed by natural gas (27.8%) and

coal (19.9%). Nuclear power accounts for 9.8% of TPES, while renewables

include biofuels and waste (4.2%), hydro (1.1%), wind (0.7%), geothermal

(0.4%) and solar (0.1%).

The United States’ TPES has declined over the past decade despite an in-

crease in energy production as a result of falling demand and lower imports.

TPES was 3.3% lower in 2013 than in 2003 and 4% lower than in 2008.

The supply of coal and oil has experienced the sharpest decline over this

period. Coal supply has contracted by 20% over the past five years while

the supply of oil was 7.5% lower. The share of coal and oil in TPES has

fallen from 24.1% and 40.1% respectively in 2005 when supply of these fuels

was at peak.

The share of other sources in TPES has increased, particularly from natural

gas (up by 12.3% since 2008 and up by 17.1% since 2003) and from robust

growth in renewables. The share of natural gas is up from 23.8% in 2008

to 27.8% in 2013. Over the past five years, energy supply from wind has

47

tripled while solar power increased by 60.4%.

Figure 4.3: TPES, 1973-2013

Domestic production accounts for approximately 85% of TPES. How-

ever, the United States produces a mix of fossil fuels that is different from

what it consumes and the geographical disparity prevents all domestic fuels

from being consumed in the country. As such, the United States is reliant

on imports for 27% of its energy needs. It is a net importer of oil and nat-

ural gas, and a net exporter of coal. Exports represent approximately 12%

of energy produced. The United States ranks twelfth-highest among IEA

member countries with regard to the share of fossil fuels in TPES.

The United States is one of the largest energy producers in the world, sec-

ond only to the People’s Republic of China. In 2013, energy produced in the

United States amounted to 1 859.3 million tonnes of oil-equivalent (Mtoe)

which represents approximately 13% of the world total. Energy production

has been on the rise over the past decade and was 13.8% higher in 2013 than

in 2003. During the 2009 economic recession, production contracted by a

marginal 0.9% in that year.

Around 30% of energy production comes from natural gas in 2013, closely

followed by coal (25.8%) and oil (24.8%). The total share of fossil fuels has

remained relatively constant over the past decade, shifting away from coal

towards more oil and gas. Much of the increase in oil and gas production

comes from discoveries of unconventional sources. Nuclear power represents

11.5% of total production and has experienced a slow decline since the start

of the century, down by 1.9% from 2008 to 2013.

48


Total final consumption (TFC) in the United States amounted to 1 432.7

Mtoe in 2012 (the latest data available per sector). Final consumption repre-

sents 66% of TPES, with the remainder used in power generation and other

transformations. Transport is the largest consuming sector with 41.7% of

TFC. Industry represents 24.6%, followed by the residential sector (17.7%)

and the commercial sector (15.9%). Over the decade to 2012, energy demand

has fallen by 5.9%, decreasing in each sector except in transport where it

has remained unchanged. Demand in the residential sector contracted by

2.9% over the ten years with demand in the commercial sector down by 1.2%.

Demand in industry experienced the most significant decline and was 18.4%

lower in 2002 than in 2012. The long-term trend since the early 1970s has

been a slight shift away from energy consumption in industry in favour of

the commercial sector. However, government projections submitted to the

IEA indicate that by 2040, the strongest growth in demand will be in in-

dustry, with the least growth expected in the commercial sector.

49

Figure 4.5: TFC by sector, 1973-2012


Total CO2 emissions from fuel combustion in the United States were 5 074.1

Mt in 2012, accounting for 78.2% of GHG emissions. Energy-related emis-

sions have increased by 4.2% since 1990, growing at a similar rate as GHG

emissions. In the ten years since 2002, CO2 emissions have declined by 9.5%.

The most significant decline was in 2009 when CO2 emissions fell by 7.2%.

The power generation sector is the largest emitter of CO2 in the United

States, with 2 086.6 Mt in 2012. This accounted for 41.1% of total CO2

emissions. Total emissions in this sector have declined by 10.9% since 2002,

albeit still 11.8% higher than in 1990.

Emissions from power generation peaked in 2007 at 2 458.9 Mt. Other

energy sectors, including refining and other transformations, emitted 283

Mt in 2012, or 5.6% of the total, which is 7.3% lower than the peak of

305.2 Mt in 2011. Transport is the second largest sector with 32.9% of total

emissions and CO2 from this sector has declined by 3.3% since 2002. Manu-

facturing and construction represent 9.8% of energy-related CO2 emissions,

while residential and commercial sectors account for 5.9% and 4.7%, respec-

tively. Emissions from manufacturing, residential and commercial use have

also fallen over the past decade, by 19.3%, 14.8% and 12.5%, respectively.

50


Energy-related emissions by fuel are from oil (40.5%), coal (31.8%) and

gas (27.1%), with 0.6% from industrial waste. These proportions are in line

with the share of total primary energy supply (TPES) of the same fuels.

Since 2002, the share of coal in total CO2 emissions has fallen from 36.4%

while it has increased for gas from 22.1%. Oil’s share has remained relatively

unchanged. In aggregate emissions, those from coal have declined by 21%,

those from oil by 10.3%, while those from gas have increased by 11%.


The driving force behind a decline in CO2 emissions from fuel combustion

has been a reduction in oil consumption, followed by reduction in natural

gas in recent years. Emissions from oil were 40.5% lower in 2014 compared

to 1990 and 35.9% compared to 2005. Emissions from coal were 8.4% lower

in 2014 compared to 1990 and 18.8% lower compared to 2005. Emissions

from natural gas have increased over time, up by 34.7% since 1990, albeit

27.8% lower since 2005.

51

4.5 Natural Gas


Production: 564.5 Mtoe (689.2 bcm), +27.3% since 2003


Imports: 81.6 bcm (Canada 96.6%, Trinidad and Tobago 2.4%, Yemen

0.4%, Qatar 0.3%, Norway 0.2%)

Exports: 44.5 bcm (Canada 58%, Mexico 42%)

Inland consumption by sector (2012): power generation 38.2%, in-

dustry 19.4%, residential 16.2%, other energy sector 12%, commercial and

public services 11.3%.

4.5.1 Overview

In 2012, the United States was the world’s largest consumer and producer

of natural gas. While the share of natural gas in total primary energy sup-

ply (TPES) had been in steady decline since the early-1970s, this trend

experienced a rapid reversal in the period since the last in-depth review in

2008, when vast resources of inexpensive shale began to be produced. The

government projects that the country will become a net exporter of natural

gas by 2018, with total exports of around 45 billion cubic metres (bcm) in

2025 and 100 bcm by 2040 with further growth of shale gas dwarfing un-

conventional developments outside North America. At the same time, the

United States may become a credible liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter,

providing much-needed relief to tight LNG global markets.

4.5.2 Supply

Between 2008 and 2013, US natural gas production increased by 20.7%,

from 571.1 bcm to 689.2 bcm. Put another way, US gas production gained

118 bcm over 2009-13, an amount greater than the production of Norway,

the largest European producer. The United States is the world’s largest

producer of natural gas, with more gas produced than in the Russian Feder-

ation and more than the whole of the Middle East region, the Asia and the

Pacific regions, and Europe. The country overtook the Russian Federation

as the largest gas producer in 2012, as more reserves led to buoyant growth

52

in production. Domestic production met 93.7% of US natural gas require-

ments in 2013. This is more than 88% in 2010 as natural gas imports to the

United States have continued to decline from a peak of 130.4 bcm in 2007.

Imports declined to 88.9 bcm in 2013 or 37.4% lower than 2007 volumes,

when the United States depended on imports for 18% of its natural gas

needs. Nonetheless, imports will continue as the marginal source of supply,

largely during cold weather and pipeline maintenance outages.

In 2013, production reached the highest levels ever, increasing to 689.2 bcm

or 1.1% over 2012 levels, the smallest gain since the increase in shale gas-

driven production started in 2005. Shale gas production represented around

39% of total gas production in 2012, rising from 34% in 2011 and just 3%

in 2002. In a period of five years (2007-12), US shale gas production grew

six-fold, increasing from 45 bcm to around 264 bcm, with more than 75%

of the current production taking place in four shale plays a Marcellus, Bar-

nett, Fayetteville and Haynesville. Over the last two years, the production

of associated gas from the plays rich in oil and liquids exceeded that of dry

gas plays. In 2012, the production of associated gas with oil and liquids ex-

panded to 51% of total US production, from an average of 49% in 2011. By

2014, this production is expected to rise to 54%. As prices remain relatively

low in North America, growth has slowed down considerably compared to

2010 or 2011. As gas prices declined, drillers began to focus more on wet

shale plays such as Eagle Ford and Bakken where they could use the same

techniques (horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing) to produce tight oil.

Figure 4.8: Natural gas supply by sector, 1973-2012

53

4.6 Coal


Production: 479.2 Mtoe, -9.1% since 2003

Net exports: 63.2 Mtoe, +601% since 2003


Consumption by sector (2012): power generation 90%, industry 4.9%,

other transformation 4.9%, commercial and other services 0.2%

4.6.1 Overview

The United States holds extensive coal reserves and is estimated to have the

world’s largest estimated recoverable reserves of coal, approximately 233 734

million tonnes (Mt) in 2012 (EIA, 2013). Coal is produced in three major

coal-producing regions covering 25 states. Approximately 70% of coal was

produced in five states: Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania

and Illinois. While coal remains the largest source of energy for electricity

generation, its annual share of total net generation is in decline and has

fallen from 50.5% in 2005 as the sector switches to cheaper natural gas.

Conversely, exports of hard coal have continued to grow: increasing from

3.6% of production in 2009 to 11.6% in 2013.

4.6.2 Supply

Hard coal and lignite together account for a fifth of total primary energy

supply (TPES), amounting to 435.4 million tonnes of oil-equivalent (Mtoe)

in 2013. 2 The supply of coal has been falling since 2005 when it peaked

at 558.4 Mtoe. The most significant decline was during the 2009 recession

and again in 2012. In both years supply fell by around 11%. During 2013,

supply recovered by 2.4% although it was still 18.2% lower than ten years

before. Hard coal production totalled 834.18 Mt in 2013. This includes

756.32 Mt of steam coal and 77.9 Mt of coking coal. The United States is

the second-largest hard coal producer in the world, behind China; it pro-

duced 13.9% of the world total in 2011 while China accounted for 51% (EIA,

2013). Hard coal production has fallen from a peak of 993.1 Mt in 2008; it

decreased by 8.7% in 2009, by 7.3% in 2012 and a further 3.2% in 2013, with

plateau production during 2010 and 2011. Lignite production was 69.8 Mt

in 2013, decreasing by 2.5% compared to 2012. Lignite production reached

a peak of 78.4 Mt in 2003 and has been falling since, with a slight recovery

54

during 2005, 2006 and 2011. The United States ranked fifth-largest in the

world with regards to lignite production in 2011, behind Germany, China,

the Russian Federation and Turkey (EIA, 2013).

Figure 4.9: Coal supply by sector, 1973-2012


When analyzing United States of America, it can be noticed that the size

of the economy is substantially bigger that the European selected countries

combined for this analysis. The USA size, population and resource avail-

ability have as a consequence a tremendous number of powerplants. The

total number of powerplants in USA is approximately 2000, including Coal,

Natural gas and Oil powerplants from all sizes, given this information we fo-

cused our analysis on powerplants that have a capacity over 1000 MW. The

trends extracted from this data are focused on the biggest powerplants and

try to show a picture of the main trends of the energy industry of USA. The

Energy industry of united states is a direct reflection of the huge resource

availability and diversity.


Given the resource availability for USA, the number of Coal and Natural gas

powerplants is more equally distributed than other countries like Italy and

Poland. The number of power plant that have a capacity over 1000 MW is

around 230. The number of power plants for Coal is always slightly higher

than Natural gas, on the interval of power plants with a capacity higher

than 1000 MW.while the number of Natural gas power plants has constant

55

superiority over the coal fired one for the power plants with a capacity lower

than 1000 MW


The trend of cumulative installed capacity shows how the installed capacity

for Coal based powerplants maintained a constant grow rate starting from

the 50’s and reaching an inflexion point on the 80’s. After the inflexion point,

the rate of new coal installed capacity slowed down to a halt in the 85’s.

The trend for Natural Gas installed capacity shows that Natural gas was

not a priority for power generation until the late 90’s. During that decade

the number of natural gas based powerplants increased sharply and is still

growing thanks to environmental regulations and natural gas low prices and

availability.

It has to be noticed that this trends represent only the large powerplants

and are an approximation of the real situation.

56



SCR Cleaning Technology

Given the high amount of Coal Powerplant and the high rate of emissions

produced, significant SCR capacity has been installed in the U.S. since 1997,

most in response to the 1995 NOx SIP-Call. The timing of installation is

shown in the following graph, which presents the year of unit startup. the

Figure suggests that by the end of 2005, the 100th GW of SCR-equipped ca-

pacity became operational. As can we see, the rate of installation increased

exponentially from 1998 to 2003 where there was a peak, then after 2003 the

rate decreased exponentially until 2006 due to reaching the required number

of powerplants fitted with SCR units.

57

Figure 4.12: Coal-Fired Capacity of SCR Retrofits, By Startup Year

Figure 4.13: Cumulative Installed capacity of Coal-Fired of SCR retrofits

FGD Cleaning Technology

The US Sulphur control policies introduced in the late 60’s triggered a pe-

riod of invention and investment in the Emission Control Sector. In 1968,

the first full-scale (>100 MW) units were built in the US at the Lawrence 4

station in Kansas and the Meramec station in Missouri both of these units

58

used the already scaled-up wet limestone process, which also became the

technology most commonly deployed during the 1970s. The rapid develop-

ment of the market of FGD caused by the policies developed in the late 60’

was slowed down by the late 80’s due to a reduction in construction of new

largescale coal fired powerplants.

New policies were introduced in 90’s by George Bush Senior administra-

tion. The programme set a cap for SO2 emissions from the electric power

industry. Its first phase, running from 1995-1999, included 2637 of the heavi-

est polluting plants, including a category of old plants that had been exempt

from previous policies, predominantly in eastern US. The second phase, from

2000, included most of the fossil fueled power production in the US. There

was also a low rate of newbuild in coal-fired capacity in the 1990s, never-

theless, after the investments in the 1990s, approximately one third of the

electricity production had FGD abatement.

Figure 4.14: Cumulative Capacity of FGD on Coal Fired Plants

59

Figure 4.15: Power Percentage of SCR

Figure 4.16: Power Percentage of FGD

60

Chapter 5

Poland


Energy production: 67.6 Mtoe

(coal 79.4%, biofuels and waste 12.1%, hydro 0.2%, natural gas 5.4%, oil

1.4%, wind 1.4%), -13.7% since 2005

TPES: 94.6 Mtoe

(coal 50.8%, oil 24.5%, natural gas 14.6%, biofuels and waste 8.9%,wind 1%,

hydro 0.2%), +2.7% since 2005

TPES per capita: 2.5 toe

(IEA average: 4.5 toe)



Electricity generation: 164.2 TWh

(coal 80.9%, wind 6.6%, biofuels and waste 6.1%, natural gas 3.8%, oil 1.3%,

hydro 1.1%), +5.7% since 2005

61



Poland is a Central European country on the Baltic Sea, bordered by Ger-

many, the Czech and Slovak republics, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and the

Russian Kaliningrad Oblast exclave. With a total area of 312 679 square

kilometres, Poland is the ninth-largest country in Europe. In 2014, its pop-

ulation was estimated at 38 million, making it, after Spain, the sixth most

populous member state of the European Union and accounting for nearly

one-tenth of the European Union’s population. Poland is administratively

divided into voivodeships (provinces); the voivodeships are subdivided into

powiats (analogous to counties), and these are further divided into gminas

(also known as communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the

status of both gmina and powiat. Poland currently has 16 voivodeships, 379

powiats (including 65 cities with powiat status) and 2 478 gminas.

62

Figure 5.2: Map of Poland


Poland looks to coal for its energy supply. It makes up 79% of energy pro-

duction and 51% of total primary energy supply (TPES). The majority of

the coal (71%) is used for heat and power generation, and coal provides 81%

of the electricity and 86% of the heat produced in Poland.

Both oil and natural gas have increased their share of TPES in recent

decades. Oil is the second-largest source of energy with 24% of TPES, and

the biggest in terms of total final consumption (TFC) with 32%. Domestic

oil production is small and Poland is dependent on imports. Natural gas

is the third-largest source of energy with a 15% share of TPES, of which

one-third is produced domestically and the rest is imported. Electricity gen-

eration is also dominated by coal, but with increasing renewable capacity

from biomass and waste alongside wind power. Renewable energy sources

provide 10% of TPES and 13% of electricity generation. Poland has no nu-

clear power, but is planning two reactors with a total combined capacity of

6 gigawatt electrical (GWe).

The industry and residential sectors are the largest energy consumers in

Poland, with close to one-third of TFC each, followed by the transport and

commercial sectors.

63

Figure 5.3: Total Primary Energy Supply, 1973-2015


TPES fell sharply after the fall of the Soviet Union, from 133 Mtoe in 1987

to 103 Mtoe in 1990. Since then, TPES has been relatively stable at be-

tween 90 Mtoe and 101 Mtoe per year, with a recent peak of 101Mtoe in

2011 before falling to 95Mtoe in2015. Poland has the largest share of coal in

TPES among International Energy Agency (IEA) countries (not counting

oil shale in Estonia) and the sixth-largest share of fossil fuels. Nonetheless,

the country has started a slow transition from coal towards more oil, gas

and renewables.

The largest renewable energy source is biofuels and waste, which makes up

88% of renewables in the energy supply and a 9% share of TPES. Wind

power is the second- largest source of renewable energy with a small yet

growing share of TPES.Coal production has more than halved from its 1978

peak of 128 Mtoe to 54 Mtoe in 2015. In the last decade, greater production

of biofuels and waste has partially compensated for lower coal production,

64

but total energy production has declined 14% since 2005.

Figure 5.5: Total Final Consumption (TFC) by sector, 1973-2014


Power and heat production generated 148.3 MtCO2−eq in 2014, represent-

ing over half of total energy-related CO2 emissions. Emissions from power

and heat production have declined by 11% from 2004 to 2014, as renewable

energy sources and more efficient coal-fired power generation have been in-

troduced into the energy system. The decline in emissions from this sector

has partly been offset by increased transport emissions.

Transport is the second-largest emitting sector, accounting for 43.7 MtCO2−eq in 2014, an increase of 36% compared to 2004. The higher emissions are a

direct result of a large growth in energy consumption in the transport sector,

which mainly uses oil products, generally the result of greater prosperity.

The residential sector is the third-largest emitter of energy-related CO2 ac-

counting for 34.2 MtCO2 − eq in 2014, a 7% increase compared to 2004.

Coal, natural gas and some oil is used in the residential sector, mainly for

household heating. Emissions fluctuate annually with weather variations,

where cold winters tend to increase demand for energy, resulting in higher

emissions. The manufacturing and construction industry sectors generated

28.7 MtCO2 − eq emissions in 2014 accounting for 10% of total emissions.

Emissions have fallen steadily from a peak of 67.5 MtCO2 − eq in 1996, or

19% of total emissions in that year. In the last decade, industry emissions

have fallen by 24%, as a result of a shift from coal towards natural gas and

biofuels. The iron and steel industry sector experienced the largest decline

65

in emissions, contributing to 79% of the total reduction from 2004 to 2014.

The commercial sector and other energy industries represent small shares of

total emissions and have declined in the last decade. Commercial emissions

fell by 15% from 2004 to 17.2 MtCO2− eq in 2014. Other energy industries

emitted 6.9 MtCO2 − eq in 2014, which was 13% lower than in 2004.



Decreased emissions from the power sector and increased emissions from

transport correspond to a shift in fuels that contribute to CO2 emissions.

Emissions from coal, which is used mainly in the power sector, fell by 11%

in 2004-14. Over the same period, oil-based emissions increased by 2%.

Natural gas contributions to total CO2 emissions grew by 13% from 2004 to

2014, mainly from increased use in the industry sector.

66

5.5 Natural Gas


Natural gas production: 6.1 bcm,

+5.6% since 2005

Natural gas imports exports: 12.1 bcm imported, 0.05 bcm exported


Consumption by sector (2014): 18.3 bcm

(industry 39.3%, residential 23.5%, other energy industries 12.9%, commer-

cial and public services, including agriculture and fishing 12.3%, heat and

power generation 9.3%, transport 2.7%)

5.5.1 Overview

Natural gas is the third-largest primary energy source in Poland, after coal

and oil. It represents 15% of total primary energy supply (TPES) and 16%

of total final consumption (TFC), a trend that has been slowly increasing

in recent decades. Its share of heat and power production increased from

a negligible level in 1995 to 4% in 2015, which is still low compared to the

International Energy Agency (IEA) average of 19%. Poland produces about

one-third of its natural gas supply and imports the remainder, with the

Russian Federation as the largest source. The industry sector is the largest

consumer, accounting for 39% of total demand, followed by the residential

sector with 24%.

5.5.2 Supply

Poland’s natural gas supply was 18.3 bcm in 2015, corresponding to 15%

of TPES. Natural gas supply has been on an upward trend since the early

1990s, with 13% growth from 2005 to 2015. This increased demand has been

met by higher import levels. One-third of total supply was produced do-

mestically, of which the major part (91%) was non-associated gas from pure

gas fields and the rest was colliery gas produced in coal mines. Production

has been stable at around 6 bcm since 2005, with small variations from 5.8

bcm in 2008 to 6.3 bcm in 2012. All domestic gas is consumed in Poland,

with insignificant levels of exports.

Poland is a net importer of natural gas with 12 bcm, with the Russian Fed-

eration as the dominant supplier. Russia was the source of 55% of Poland’s

natural gas consumption in 2015 (72% of Poland’s imports in 2015); how-

ever, import possibilities have diversified over the last two decades. In Oc-

67

tober 2010, the 1996 long-term contract between PGNiG S.A. and Russia’s

Gazprom was amended. Under this new contract arrangement, Gazprom

may supply Poland with a maximum of 11 bcm, depending on PGNiG S.A.

requests. This supply contract will end in 2022. The second-largest source of

gas is the German market, gas originally sourced from Russia, Netherlands

and Norway and elsewhere, with a 26% share of imports in 2015. Imports

from the German market have grown eightfold since 2005.

Figure 5.8: Natural gas consumption by sector, 1973-20145

5.6 Coal


Production: 135.2 Mt, -15% since 2005

Coal imports and exports: 8.5 Mt imported, 9.4 Mt exported


Consumption by sector (2014): 137.4 Mt (heat and power generation

70.7%, residential 12.8%, industry 7.7%, other energy industries 5.5%, com-

mercial and public services, including agriculture and fishing 3.4%)

5.6.1 Overview

Poland is endowed with extensive coal resources, both hard coal and lignite,

which have been exploited for a long time, leading to the development of a

large coal mining sector, which employs a skilled workforce of around 100000

people today. Coal is the cornerstone of the energy supply, the source of

68

80% of the electricity supply and supplies more than half of primary energy.

Coal therefore plays a crucial role for energy security in Poland.

While coal is by far the main source of energy in Poland, total coal supply

has been decreasing for three decades. The share of coal in the total primary

energy supply has fallen from 79% in 1985 to 51% in 2015. The share of

coal in domestic energy production and heat and power generation shows a

similar, but slower, rate of decline. Most of this coal is produced domesti-

cally and the country is self-sufficient in both hard coal and lignite; however,

hard coal is also traded on global markets. While coal is mostly used for

heat and power generation, it is also an important fuel in the residential and

industry sectors.

5.6.2 Supply

Domestic coal production was adequate to satisfy demand for both hard coal

and lignite (brown coal) in 2015, complemented by smaller volumes of coal

imported and exported. Historically, Poland was a coal exporter, supplying

hard coal to nearby countries. With decreasing domestic production, these

exports have declined, and in 2008 Poland was a net importer of coal for the

first time. In 2011, net imports reached a record level of 8 Mt, but this has

varied year by year and in 2015 Poland was again a net exporter (1 Mt).

The majority of coal imports come from Russia (60%) and Australia (19%),

while most exports are to Germany and the Czech Republic (29% each).

Most of the coal traded is hard coal, with a share of 97% of imports and

98% of exports. Lignite is mainly consumed at mine-mouth power plants

such as BeAchatoIw (5 520 MW), the largest coal-fired power plant in Eu-

rope.

69

Figure 5.9: Coal consumption by sector, 1973-2014


From the collected data and external sources trends can be extracted to

give us a general idea of the evolution of the power generation Industry in

Poland and its relationship with the characteristics of the country natural

resources and technology. As can be noted from the previous chapters,

Coal is the backbone of the energy system in Poland, providing over 50%

of primary energy supply, the second-largest share among OECD countries.

The electricity system is coal-based, which indicates that many of the plants

are very old, inefficient and polluting, 62% of coal capacity is over 30 years

old and 13% is between 26 and 30 years old.

The replacement of these plants represents an economic challenge for the

Poland energy sector, but at the same time offers a good opportunity to

reduce the air pollution and carbon footprint from power generation.


As pointed out previously, the number of coal powerplants in Poland is sig-

nificantly higher than the Gas Powerplants thanks to the high internal coal

production. The approximate number of powerplants in Poland is around

50, included some few natural gas powerplants, the sizes of the powerplants

have an equal distribution along all the intervals, as shown in the graph.

The few gas powerplants existing in Poland can also be found in this interval

between 100-200. This trend can be explained by the age of the powerplants,

most of them are more than 30 years old. The number of powerplants over

70

1000 Mw is 10, showing a high contribution for high capacity powerplant

projects and centralization of the power generation.


The trend of cumulative coal installed capacity during the last 50 years

show a high and constant increase between 60’s and early 80’s coinciding

with Soviet Union influence. After the 80’s the rate of new capacity in-

stalled decreased compared to the previous years, an remain constant until

the present days.

71


The presence of Natural Gas powerplants in Poland Power generation is al-

most negligible, but it is expected to grow in the following years.

In the next table some examples of Poland powerplants can be found with

it’s parameters.



The Polish power industry being traditionally coal-based generates signif-

icant emissions of SO2 and other gases. SO2 generation in Polish power-

plants amounted to almost 1.9 million tones in 1990 (compared to 3.8 million

tones generated by the whole national economy), mainly due to the improve-

ment of quality of coal used, it decreased to approximately 1.4 million tones

72

in 2000 (when the total SO2 generation in Poland declined to approximately

2.8 million tonnes).

The decrease of real SO2 emissions in the national economy was even more

substantial, being the result of the construction of numerous flue-gas desul-

phurization installations. Such installations were mainly for domestic power-

plants and central-heating plants, as they generate the largest portion of

SO2 in the national economy. The Polish government signed the so-called

”Second Sulphur Protocol” in Oslo in June 1994. This Protocol is the conse-

quence of ”Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air-Pollution”. Ac-

cording to this Protocol, total SO2 emissions in Poland (from all sources)

should be reduced to 2,583,000 tonnes in 2000, 2,173,000 tonnes in 2005

and 1,379,000 tonnes in 2010. In the following graphs it its shown how the

amount of installations of FGD units increased and the use of a circulating

fluidized-bed (CFB) for power generation is a rapidly growing technology in

Poland.

Figure 5.12: Cumulative Installed Capacity of FGD

We focused on our research on power plants that has Flue-gas desulfur-

ization (FGD) unit or a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler and a capacity

bigger than 100 MW. The research showed that the trend of installation of

FGD units started at the beginning of the 90’s after the polish government

signature for the ”Second Sulphur Protocol”. The following tables mentions

the leading power plants with their capacity and the year of installation of

FGD units or circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler.

Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) which is a set of technologies used to re-

73

move sulfur dioxide (SO2) from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants,

and from the emissions of other sulfur oxide emitting processes. List of lead-

ing power plants with capacity and year of installation of FGD methods.

Table 5.2: Timeline of Instalation of FGD

Circulating fluidized bed (CFB) which is a developing technology for

coal combustion to achieve lower emission of pollutants. By using this tech-

nology, up to 95% of pollutants can be absorbed before being emitted to the

atmosphere. List of leading power plants with capacity and year of instal-

lation of CFB boilers.

74

Table 5.3: Timeline of Instalation of CFB

Figure 5.13: Cumulative Installed Capacity of CFB

Significant investments in desulphurization installations were carried on in

the Polish power industry in recent years starting form 1994 due to the

signed ”Second Sulphur Protocol” in Oslo.

75

As a result, still increasing amounts of various desulphurization products

are being installed. The most used desulphurization method is the wet-

limestone, and it is the most important method employed. It can also be

noticed that many CFB combinations have been commercialized in Poland

and utilize a wide variety of fuels. Based upon performance data, the CFB

units met significantly and satisfied all the required emission levels. In most

cases, the operating efficiency and emission performance were better than

that guaranteed for the boiler. The development of CFB technology contin-

ues with emphasis on higher steam-pressures and temperatures and larger

units.

Figure 5.14: EPower Percentage of FGD

76

Chapter 6

United Kingdom


Energy production: 203 Mtoe

(natural gas 42%, oil 31%, coal 15%, nuclear 8%, renewables 3.7%),-8.9%

since 2000

TPES per capita: 3.3 toe (IEA average: 4.9 toe)



Electricity generation: 378 TWh

(natural gas 46%, coal 29%, nuclear 16%, renewables and waste 7%)

Electricity generation per capita: 6.1 MWh (IEA average: 9.5 MWh)

77



The United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland) has an area of

244 000 km2. The island of Great Britain consists of England, Wales and

Scotland, while Northern Ireland borders on the Republic of Ireland. Over

the past decade, the UK population has increased by more than 3 million

to reach 62.3 million in 2010. Population is expected to continue to grow,

largely as a result of immigration.

The economy is dominated by services, accounting for around 78% of gross

domestic product (GDP) in 2010. Banking, insurance and business services

are particularly strong and London is a major international financial centre.

Industry provided around 22% of GDP and agriculture around 1%.

The UK economy experienced a long boom from 1992 until the international

financial crisis in 2008. GDP dropped by 4.4% in 2009, but turned to a 2.1%

growth in 2010. The government has adopted an ambitious seven-year fiscal

tightening programme to shrink the country’s largest-ever peacetime budget

deficit (10% of GDP in 2010). GDP per capita is slightly higher than the

OECD average. The unemployment rate in late 2011 was 8.4% of the labour

force.

78

Figure 6.2: Map of the United Kingdom

79


In 2010, total primary energy supply (TPES) in the United Kingdom was

203 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe). This is 10% below the historical

high of 226 Mtoe in 1996. TPES in 2009 was 197 Mtoe, the first time the

level was under 200 Mtoe since 1984. TPES is on a decreasing trend, with

an average decline of -0.9% per year in the last decade. The government

projects this trend to continue until 2020 and reduce total primary energy

supply by 13%.Natural gas dominates energy supply in the United Kingdom.

It accounts for 41.9% of TPES (85 Mtoe). Natural gas overtook oil use in

1997 and has played an increasingly important role as a fuel for electricity

generation and space heating.

Oil is the second-largest energy source. It accounts for 31% of TPES (63

Mtoe). The volume of oil use has been in slow decline over the past decades.

Coal contributes 15% to TPES (31 Mtoe).The outlook is for a significant

decline in the use of coal in the near term. This mainly follows on from

adapting to EU air pollution legislation.

Nuclear energy accounts for 8% of TPES. The amount of nuclear energy

is expected to decrease over the next decade, as power plants are reaching

the end of their operational lives. Compared with other IEA countries, the

United Kingdom has a rather high share of fossil fuels in its energy mix

and among the lowest share of renewables. Biofuels and waste represent 3%

of TPES, wind 0.4% and hydro 0.2%. The government expects renewable

energy supply to grow strongly to 2020: biofuels and waste by 14% per year

and wind power by 22% per year. In 2010, domestic energy production

amounted to 149 Mtoe. The United Kingdom imports 30% of its energy

supply. Fossil fuel production has peaked in all fuel categories and is ex-

pected to decline gradually.

80

Figure 6.3: Energy production by source, 1973-2010 (Projected 2020)

Figure 6.4: Total Final Consumption (TFC) by sector, 1973-2010 (Projected to 2020)


In 2010, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel combustion rep-

resented 97% of total CO2 emissions and around 82% of greenhouse gas

(GHG) emissions in the United Kingdom. CO2 emissions from fuel combus-

tion totalled 510 million tonnes (Mt) in 2008, a level that had been relatively

stable in the previous few years. With the economic downturn, CO2 emis-

sions fell by 9% in 2009 to 466 Mt, the lowest level since 1973, and in 2010

emissions increased to 484 Mt.

81

Figure 6.5: CO2 emissions by sector*, 1973 to 2010

The drop in CO2 emissions in 2009 was largely from lower levels of coal-

and natural gas- fired combustion. While CO2 emissions were lower in 2009

in all sectors, they fell by 15% in industry and by 11% in power and heat

generation from 2008. From 2009 to 2010, CO2 emissions from energy use

increased by around 4.5%, which primarily resulted from a rise in residential

gas use, combined with fuel switching away from nuclear power to coal and

gas for electricity generation. Since 1990, CO2 emissions from the energy

supply sector have decreased by 15% and business emissions by 41%, ac-

cording to IEA data. However, emissions from households have increased

by 8% and from road transport by 4%. Emissions reductions are primarily

explained by switching from coal and oil to natural gas in power generation

in the 1990s, reductions in energy-intensive industry output and improve-

ments in energy efficiency.

(fig. 6.5) shows CO2 emissions by sector for 1973 to 2010. CO2 emissions

from natural gas combustion were responsible for 40% of the total in 2010

compared with an average for IEA countries of 24%. Oil combustion ac-

counted for 35% of total CO2 emissions. The United Kingdom, along with

the Netherlands and Hungary, are the only three IEA countries where CO2

emissions from natural gas combustion are higher than those from oil or

coal. The power and heat generation sector is the largest emitter in the

United Kingdom, responsible for 182 Mt of CO2 in 2010. The transport

sector accounts for 25% of total CO2 emissions equal to 119 Mt. CO2 emis-

sions from other sectors are lower: residential at 81 Mt; industry at 50 Mt

and other at 52 Mt.

82

6.5 Natural Gas


Net production: 60 bcm, -48% since 2000

Net imports: 38% of supply, total imports 45.6 Mtoe (54 bcm);

sources: Norway 48%, Qatar 27%, the Netherlands 15%, Belgium 4%, Trinidad

and Tobago 3%, Algeria 2%, others 1%.

Share of natural gas: 42% in TPES and 46% in electricity generation

Consumption by sector (2014): 85 Mtoe (99 bcm): power and heat

generation 36%, residential 36%, industry 12%, commercial and public ser-

vices 6%, energy sector 6%.

6.5.1 Overview

Natural gas is the largest energy source in the United Kingdom, account-

ing for 42% of total primary energy supply (TPES) in 2010. This is one

of the highest shares among IEA member countries. With a demand of 85

Mtoe (99 billion cubic metres) in 2010, the United Kingdom is one of the

largest gas consumers in Europe. Future demand of gas will heavily depend

on developments in the country’s power generating capacity. After being a

net exporter of natural gas between 1995 and 2003, the United Kingdom

became a net importer in 2004. The country has been enhancing its import

infrastructure since then. Imports are relatively diversified between pipeline

imports from Norway, the Netherlands and other European countries and

liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from various sources.

The United Kingdom also exports gas to Ireland and to continental Eu-

rope via the Interconnector (IUK). Since peaking in 2000, natural gas pro-

duction has been declining, although unconventional gas could increase in

importance. The United Kingdom has been a leader in energy market lib-

eralisation, which started in the early 1990s. All consumers were provided

the opportunity to choose their gas supplier as early as 1998. Retail market

consolidation has increased over the last decade and six electricity and gas

suppliers now dominate the market. Meanwhile, ownership unbundling of

the transmission system operator was implemented well ahead of the dead-

lines set by the European Union gas market directives.

83

6.5.2 Supply

Natural gas imports began in the mid-1960s and the United Kingdom was

among the first LNG importers. Imports picked up in the early 1980s with

the commissioning of the first pipeline from Norway. From 1977 to 1995, the

United Kingdom was a net importer. Then it was a net exporter until 2003.

Since 2004, the United Kingdom has been a net importer and imported

quantities increased with the development of new pipelines and, since 2005,

LNG import infrastructure.

In 2010, around 54 bcm of gas were imported, mainly from Norway (48%

of the total), Qatar (27%) and the Netherlands (15%). Other suppliers

included Algeria, Nigeria and Trinidad and Tobago. Most gas has been im-

ported by pipeline, with the volume ranging from 31bcm to 36bcm over the

past three years. LNG imports have increased dramatically from 3.5 bcm

in 2006 to 18.5 bcm in 2010 and continued on an increasing trend to reach

14.6 bcm in the first half of 2011. This growth reflects both the increase

of LNG import capacity and the dramatic expansion in global liquefaction

capacity by 100 bcm in 2009 and 2010. Qatar, one of the key suppliers to

the United Kingdom, saw its annual export capacity triple to 105 bcm from

April 2009 to February 2011.

6.6 Coal


Production: 17.8 million tonnes of hard coal (11 Mtoe)

Net imports: 25.8 million tonnes of hard coal: 37% from Russia, 24%

Colombia, 17% United States and 12% Australia Contribution to energy

supply: 15% of TPES and 29% of electricity generation.

Consumption: Power and heat generation 82%, other transformation 10%,

industry 5%, households 2%.

6.6.1 Overview

In 2010, domestic coal production was 17.8 Mt (11 Mtoe), one-fifth of the

1990 level, and 35% of total coal supply, while imports and stock changes

covered the rest. The use of stocks built up in 2009 provided a significant

7.2 Mt, or 14% of total supply in 2010. There is no brown coal production.

84

Indigenous hard coal production has declined significantly over the past four

decades, from around 200 Mt in 1950 to an all-time low of around 18 Mt

in 2008. Today, around 41% of this production is from underground mines,

compared with around 50% in 2005. Between 2005 and 2010, a loss of output

from four deep mines which closed or were put into acare and maintenancea

status has been largely replaced by improved output from remaining deep

mines and by some recovery in surface mine output in England.

Domestic hard coal production has halved over the last decade. This mostly

reflects the often poor economics of mining hard coal in the United King-

dom in relation to internationally traded coal, as domestic hard coal demand

only dropped by 12% over the period. However, the United Kingdom is the

world’s fifteenth-largest and Europe’s second- largest hard coal producer. It

accounts for 14% of European Union hard coal production (the other EU

hard coal producers are Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain and

Romania). As the United Kingdom’s indigenous coal has a relatively high

sulphur content of 0.6% to 2.5%, most coal-fired power plants have been

fitted with flue-gas desulphurisation equipment to meet obligatory emission

limits.

6.6.2 Supply

According to Euracoal estimates, hard coal reserves in the United Kingdom

amount to 600 Mt and coal resources three billion tonnes. The country’s

coal resources are the second-largest in Europe after Poland, and dwarf the

country’s conventional oil and gas resources. Hard coal deposits are found in

twelve areas, with working mines inSouth Wales, Warwickshire, the English

North Midlands, Yorkshire, North East England, and the Central Belt of

Scotland. At current production rates, the United Kingdom’s coal reserves

would last more than 33 years.


Natural Gas dominates the energy supply in United Kingdom as it overtook

Oil use for energy production in 1997. UK has a rather high share of fossil

fuels in its energy mix and among the lowest share of renewable energies

compared to other countries in Europe. In the past Coal was one of the

main sources for Electricity Generation but over time this trend changed

due to several factors included the high cost of underground coal mining,

emission control and the new infrastructure for importing Natural Gas.

85


The total number of powerplants for United kingdom is approximately 79

which are scattered all around the size spectrum. As expected from the fuel

availability the majority of the plants are Natural Gas fired for a total num-

ber of 65. Currently there are 9 active coal fired power stations operating

in the United Kingdom. In 2016 three power stations closed at Rugeley,

Ferrybridge and Longannet. In November 2015, it was announced by the

UK Government that all coal fired power stations would be closed by 2025.

The Sizes of Natural Gas fired powerplants for UK seems to be distributed

fairly equally among the size spectrum, giving a relative small concentration

of powerplants above 800MW. The total number of powerplants above 800

MW is 22. For the Coal case all the powerplants are located over 1000MW.


As previously discussed there was a high rate of built coal powerplants in

the late 60’ and early 70’, and it stopped suddenly with the last Coal plant

built on the 82. For natural gas the trend of new plants started in early 90’

and increased very fast until 2005 where the growth seem to stabilize. This

explained by the increase of infrastructure for natural gas imports during

that time.

86



The first attempts at implementing FGD systems happened in the 1930s in

the UK, as a response to concerns about local impacts on grain fields. After

that, there was a long gap until a contemporary suite of investments started

in the late 1980s, responding to concerns about acidification of lakes and

rivers and detrimental effects on forests.

The EU also introduced an emissions trading scheme for CO2. Among the

rules for its second phase, UK power plants were allocated extra allowances

if they had fitted FGD, resulting in a substantial financial contribution to

FGD investment. LCPD2, in combination with EU ETS rules, eventually

lead to an FGD rush towards the end of the decade. By 2009, another 10.3

GW of capacity had been fitted with FGD.

By 2009, 20.7 GW coal-fired capacity had been fitted with FGD, see table

1. This corresponds to just over 70% of a total remaining coal-fired ca-

pacity of 28.4GW. The remaining coal-fired stations were Didcot, Tilbury,

Kingsnorth, Ironbridge and Cockenzie, adding up to 7.7GW, and all opted

out of the LCPD2 where shut down by 2015.

List of leading power plants with capacity and year of installation of FGD

methods.

87

Table 6.1: Timeline of installation of FGD

Figure 6.8: Cumulative Installed capacity of FGD methods

88

Figure 6.9: Power Percentage of FGD

89

Chapter 7

General Analysis and

Conclusions

In the following sections general comparisons will be made for the main indi-

cators for every country and how each country behaves from the electricity

and emission generation point of view.

7.1 Total Primary Energy Supply Analysis

Comparing the total primary energy supply for the selected countries we

can see some particularities, apart from the high participation of Coal on

Poland and the small participation of Coal on Italy, we can notice that Italy

have and Poland have no participation of Nuclear electricity generation. At

least 25% of TPES for all countries is from Oil, which most of the time is

imported, for Italy the small share of coal on the TPES is due to imports

because of the negligible coal internal production. The biggest shares of

Natural Gas TPES are present in Italy and UK, where Gas has been a main

diver of Electricity generation.

91

Figure 7.1: Total Primary Energy Supply By Fuel Genera Comparison

When making the analysis of TPES per capita for every country we notice

how US have the highest ranking with 6.66 toe/cap, surpassing the second

biggest country, Germany by 2.89 toe/cap. The Toe per capita for Germany

is 3.77. This difference is bigger that the Toe/cap for Italy, Poland and UK

individually. This show how united states have a higher intensity of energy

and possibly how is less efficient on its energy usage. The Toe/cap for Italy,

UK and Poland is very close to each other with 2.46, 2.58 and 2.71 toe/cap

respectively, showing a more conservative usage of energy and possible more

efficiency.

Figure 7.2: TPES per capita General Comparison

92

7.2 Electricity Generation Analysis

For the electricity generation, we can notice how Italy is mostly based on

Natural gas, the same as United Kingdom with 44% and 43% respectively,

the Coal participation is the lowest for UK with 9% and for Italy is the

second lowest with 14%. The opposite is the case for Poland where 80% of

electricity is generated from Coal, and Natural Gas is almost negligible with

5%. Germany and US have a mixed share on Fossil fuels with 43% Coal,

13% Natural gas for Germany and 32% Coal, 33% Natural gas for US. It

can be noticed also that non-negligible shares of Electricity generation come

from nuclear powerplants for both countries with 13% for Germany and 20%

for US.

Figure 7.3: Electricity Generation by Source

From the point of view of Fossil/Non-Fossil electricity generation, the biggest

share on fossil is for Poland with 86%, for the remaining 14% of Non-fossil,

the biggest electricity source is Wind. The second place for Fossil participa-

tion comes for US with a total of 66%, for the remaining 34% of Non-fossil,

nuclear is the biggest electricity source with 20%. The third place comes for

Italy with 62% for Fossil fuels, for the remaining 38% of Non-fossil the main

participant is Hydro with 14%. It can be noticed that this participation of

Hydroelectricity is the biggest for all the 5 analyzed countries. The fourth

place for Fossil fuel participation comes for Germany with 57%, for the re-

maining 43% nuclear is the biggest source with 13%. The country with the

smaller participation of Fossil electricity generation is UK with 53%, for the

93

remaining 47% the biggest contributor is Nuclear with 21%. It can be no-

ticed that for UK nuclear Electricity is the biggest contributor for non-Fossil.

Figure 7.4: Electricity consumption per capita

The same way as TPES, the higher energy consumption per capita is for US,

with 12.75 Mwh/cap, and again almost doubling the consumption for the fol-

lowing country, Germany, with a difference of 5.83Mwh/cap. The situation

for Electricity consumption per capita is somehow similar to the situation

for TPES/cap where Germany is the leading country in Europe and Italy

and UK have similar values. The smallest value of Energy Consumption per

capita is for Poland with 4.11.

7.3 Emissions Analysis

The Electricity and Heat production sector in Italy accounts for around 32%

of CO2 emissions and is in first place, the second place is for Transport and

the third place comes for Commercial and other sectors. Oil and Natural

Gas has the highest contribution for the total CO2 emissions with 45% and

37% respectively. Italy comes with the best ranking in our list with the

lowest value of emissions per capita, 4.45TCO2/cap, almost 5.5TCO2/cap

lower than the average of the IEA countries. In the last decades, there has

been a high rate of installing cleaning technology capacity in Italy which

accounts for these good results on having low CO2 emissions.

94

Figure 7.5: Sources of CO2 Emissions Sector (MTCO2)

Figure 7.6: Sources of CO2 Emissions by Fuel (MTCO2)

Figure 7.7: Emissions per capita (TCO2/cap)

Germany Electricity and Heat production sector is the biggest source for

CO2 with around 43%, followed by Transport and Commercial and other

sectors. The biggest pollutant for Germany is Coal with around 43% of par-

ticipation followed by Oil with 34%. With 8.93 TCO2/cap Germany comes

95

4th in our list with a very close number to the average of the IEA countries,

which means Germany needs to put more effort in producing clean energy

and put more regulation for producing clean energy.

As in previous countries USA Electricity and Heat production sector comes

in the first place in Producing CO2 followed by Transport and Commercial

and other sectors. The biggest pollutant is Oil with 41% and followed by

Coal and Natural Gas with around 30% each one. US have the most equal

participation for the three main fossil fuels. US have the highest rank in

CO2/cap in our list with a value 15.53 that is 6 points higher than the IEA

countries average. USA still has to put much more effort to reduce It’s CO2

emissions from power generations.

Poland Electricity and Heat production sector is the main contributor of

CO2 emissions, and is more than 50% of the share of emissions for the

country which compared to the other countries is the highest. Poland CO2

emissions is mainly due to the dependence on Coal for producing energy

which account for around 70% of CO2 source.

Poland comes with 7.34 TCO2/cap as third in our list very close to the IEA

average point. Almost 80% of Poland energy is supplied from coal which

means that Poland need to diversify it’s sources of energy and also needs to

put more effort to produce clean energy.

UK Electricity and Heat production is the biggest contributor of CO2 emis-

sions with respect to the other sectors and accounts for 38%. Oil has the

highest contribution for the CO2 emissions with 39% followed by natural gas

with 36% and Coal with 25%. UK has a 5.99 TCO2/cap which is relatively

a good value 4 points lower than the average of the IEA countries and only

surpassed by Italy.

96

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