Gas, coal duke it out over repowering

By 1998, 3,500--3,700 units in the US will be more than 30 years old according to US Department of Energy (DOE) estimates. Meanwhile, the DOE forecasts that the US market for new capacity and replacement power generation could exceed 480,000 MW by 2010, when these same plants would be over age 40. Much of this emerging power market will be driven by a steady increase in US electricity demand and the need to update or retire a large number of deteriorating plants. Meeting these needs requires large capital investments from all power plant owners if replacing retired units is the only option. Fortunately, other options are available and plant repowering leads the way. The gas turbine is repowering`s heavyweight champion, but this article describes how clean coal technology could someday share the crown.