Cost and Performance Baseline for Fossil Energy Plants - Volume 3c: Natural Gas Combined Cycle at Elevation

Disclaimer This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed therein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Background The goal of Fossil Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration (RD&D) is to ensure the availability of ultra-clean (" zero " emissions), abundant, low-cost, domestic electricity and energy (including hydrogen) to fuel economic prosperity and strengthen energy security. A broad portfolio of technologies is being developed within the Clean Coal Program to accomplish this objective. Ever increasing technological enhancements are in various stages of the research " pipeline, " and multiple paths are being pursued to create a portfolio of promising technologies for development, demonstration, and eventual deployment. The technological progress of recent years has created a remarkable new opportunity for coal. Advances in technology are making it possible to generate power from fossil fuels with great improvements in the efficiency of energy use while at the same time significantly reducing the impact on the environment, including the long-term impact of fossil energy use on the Earth's climate. The objective of the Clean Coal RD&D Program is to build on these advances and bring these building blocks together into a new, revolutionary concept for future coal-based power and energy production. Objective To establish baseline performance and cost estimates for today's fossil energy plants, it is necessary to look at the current state of technology. Such a baseline can be used to benchmark the progress of the Fossil Energy RD&D portfolio. This report documents an accurate, independent assessment of the cost and performance for Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) plants with and without carbon dioxide (CO 2) capture and sequestration at two site elevations in Montana and North Dakota. The NGCC cases are a subset of a study that …