<
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/giant-batteries-drain-economics-gas-power-plants-2023-11-21/>
'LONDON, Nov 21 (
Reuters) - Giant batteries that ensure stable power supply
by offsetting intermittent renewable supplies are becoming cheap enough to make
developers abandon scores of projects for gas-fired generation world-wide.
The long-term economics of gas-fired plants, used in Europe and some parts of
the United States primarily to compensate for the intermittent nature of wind
and solar power, are changing quickly, according to
Reuters' interviews with
more than a dozen power plant developers, project finance bankers, analysts and
consultants.
They said some battery operators are already supplying back-up power to grids
at a price competitive with gas power plants, meaning gas will be used less.
The shift challenges assumptions about long-term gas demand and could mean
natural gas has a smaller role in the energy transition than posited by the
biggest, listed energy majors.
In the first half of the year, 68 gas power plant projects were put on hold or
cancelled globally, according to data provided exclusively to
Reuters by
U.S.-based non-profit Global Energy Monitor.
Recent cancellations include electricity plant developer Competitive Power
Ventures decision announced in October to abandon a gas plant project in New
Jersey in the United States. It cited low power prices and the absence of
government subsidies without giving financial detail.
British independent Carlton Power dropped plans for an 800 million pound ($997
million) gas power plant in Manchester, northern England, in 2016. Reflecting
the shift in economics in favour of storage, this year it launched plans to
build one of the world's largest batteries at the site.
"In the early 1990s, we were running gas plants baseload, now they are shifting
to probably 40% of the time and that's going to drop off to 11%-15% in the next
eight to 10 years," Keith Clarke, chief executive at Carlton Power, told
Reuters.
Without providing price detail, which companies say is commercially sensitive,
Clarke said Carlton had struggled to finance the planned gas plant in part
because of uncertainty over the revenues it would generate and the number of
hours it would run.'
Via Christoph S.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
