The Government considers technology a solution to reducing difficulties in power supply and pricing.
The banner on the façade of Alstom Group’s new plant in Tianjin, China, reads “Clean power today” on the day of the plant’s opening ceremony. These words are not only the slogan for the power plant, which emits no climate polluting carbon dioxide, but also the technological goal of Alstom, which covers a quarter of the global market share for generators.
Philippe Joubert, Alstom’s vice chairman in charge of energy, affirms the challenges for countries now are to guarantee permanent power supplies for growing economies while minimizing negative impacts on the environment. This relates directly to the efficiency of power supply systems. “In recent years, …global warming has created an urge to research…solutions to develop new sources of energy containing little carbon,” he said.
As forecast by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global demand for power in 2006-2015 increases by 3.2% per year. This rate in the following 15 years will descend to 2% per year. However, the demand in developing countries will remain high at 3.8% per year.
Despite world-wide efforts to increase the use of clean energy, heavily polluting coal continues to contribute a large percentage of energy production. The IEA’s statistics show that in Asia, coal-fired thermopower makes up one-third of the total capacity. This rate is 75% in India and 50% in China. In the power production sector, coal-fired thermopower emits the most hazardous waste. Studying technologies to improve the efficiency of this kind of power is significant for the economy and the environment.
In Vietnam, the power demand grows by 17-18% per year and the growth will continue to remain at a two-digit rate within the next 20 years. Like China and India, the Vietnamese economy will depend significantly on energy from coal-fired power plants. Over the past three decades, the country’s hydropower potential has been exploited at a fast rate and is almost at zero now. Coal-fired power plants will account for around 70% of the total capacity of the new power plants to be built from 2015 to 2025.
Coal-operated power plants have low efficiency, averaging just 36%. Natural gas-operated power plants are slightly better, with the efficiency averaging 37%.
Alstom vice chairman Philippe Joubert says Alstom’s technology can help coal-fired power plants attain an efficiency rate of 45%. “The experts of Alstom are researching, and I believe coal-generated power will within a few more years go beyond 50%.” It is possible to improve the efficiency of all existing plants, he added.
Raising the efficiency of Vietnam’s coal-operated and gas-operated power plants will not only reduce CO2 emissions and other pollutants, it will help cut power production price and electricity rates.
This article has been altered from the original version.
