FutureMetrics: Biomass conversion low cost solution when decarbonizing on-demand power
September 5, 2024
By Canadian Biomass staff
Graphic comparing building a new combined cycle natural gas fuelled power unit with converting existing pulverized coal power unit from coal to wood pellets. Photo: FutureMetrics What is the lowest cost solution for maximum decarbonization of the on-demand power sector while maintaining grid reliability?
If the capacity factor is much below baseload, less than 80%, and natural gas prices aren’t at rock bottom, building new natural gas combined cycle generation is not the optimal solution.
FutureMetrics‘s Dr. William Strauss compares replacing coal power plants with natural gas combined cycle generation stations versus modifying existing plants to use compatible fuel produced from renewing bioresources in a newly released white paper by the consultancy.
He writes:
“Carbon reduction policy requires complementary policy mechanisms to guide markets toward the optimal solution in terms of the cost per avoided tonne. Policy that forces the internalization of the external costs of pollution is well within the normal responsibility of government.
In any industrial sector, if left unregulated, industry defaults to the lowest production costs regardless of environmental impacts. That is why policy regulates emissions. The well-being of society, now and in the future, requires intervention.
When comparing NGCC and coal-to-pellet conversion, and when factoring in the reduction in CO2 emissions from each, the strategy that provides significantly higher CO2 reduction at a lower net monetary cost to society per tonne of CO2 avoided is by repurposing existing PC power plants to run on industrial wood pellets.”
Read the full paper here.
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