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eKapija visits RDK8, the world's most efficient fossil-fuel power plant
Source: eKapija
Tuesday, 19.07.2016.
11:28
Tuesday, 19.07.2016.
11:28
Comments
(Rheinhafen-Dampfkraftwerk, RDK) The steam-electric power plant RDK8 has reached 47.5% of net thermal efficiency, with the production of 912MW of electrical energy, at the facility for the production of electrical energy Rheinhafen-Dampfkraftwerk (RDK) in Karlsruhe (Germany), which has made it the most efficient fossil fuel steam-electric power plant in the world. The company General Electric, responsible for planning, procurement and construction of the energy unit of RDK8 plans to apply the facility for the Guinness Book of Records.
The business portal eKapija has had the opportunity, along with the group of media from the countries of former Yugoslavia and Poland, to visit the power plant and witness first-hand the advantages of modern technologies in the production of electrical energy.
More precisely, Germany's switch to renewable energy sources demanded the existence of a stable base load, which could provide, at any moment, a continual, reliable and flexible power supply. In addition to that, the emission of harmful gases needed to be kept at a minimum and the owners of power plants had to renew their increasingly old capacities with modern, efficient facilities, to which end the construction of RDK8 began in 2008.
An investment worth EUR 1.3 billion
The intention was to satisfy the growing needs of EnBW (Energie Baden-Wurttemberg AG), a German company for the production of electric energy, one of the largest such companies in Europe, with a long-term goal of replacing the existing fossil-fuel power plants and nuclear power plants, which Germany plans to shut down in the years to come.
– The new power plant gives a significant contribution to providing the power supply, while simultaneously supporting one of Germany's most important industrial regions. In order to provide the best value to its clients and reduce the environmental impact of its activities to a minimum, EnBW needed the most efficient solution, which is exactly what General Electric has delivered – said Georg Stamatelopoulos, member of the Board of Directors of EnBW on the occasion of the visit by the press to RDK8 in Karlsruhe.
(Georg Stamatelopoulos) Stamatelopoulos pointed out that the new facility had made possible the reduction of the emission of harmful gasses and lower operating costs.
– RDK has an installed capacity of 1,800MW, and Unit 8, which started operating in April 2014, alone produces 912MW of electricity, with a capacity of 220MWth for district heating. The investment in this facility amounted to EUR 1.3 billion – Stamatelopoulos stated and reminded that the income of EnBW, which provides for 5.5 billion users and employs 20,000 employees, amounted to more than EUR 21 billion in 2015.
The power plant on the river Rhine uses only 1-2% of coal from Germany, whereas the rest is imported by river and railway from South Africa, Columbia, Poland, USA... Even including transportation costs, the imported coal is cheaper than the local coal by around 20%, and around 1,000 ships are unloaded in Karlsruhe annually.
The advantage of RDK8 also consists of the flexibility of fuel, as it can use different types of coal, as well as 20-25% of biomass. The ashes produced by coal combustion are stored in silos and than sold, mostly to the construction industry.
Coal as a vital ingredient of the energy mix
In carrying out the planning, procurement and construction of the energy unit at RDK8, General Electric has employed its best technology and expert knowledge in the area of large-scale power plants in order to ensure the superior performance. This entails an 'ultra supercritical steam generator' with a furnace system, a steam turbine with a turbo generator, and a complete water/steam cycle.
Considering the rate of efficiency, it is expected that the operator of RDK8 will reduce the emission of C02 by 40% and save 275,000 tons of coal a year, compared to the global average of conventional fuel-fossil power plants.
– Nowadays, two billion people have no access to a sufficient amount of energy or to reliable energy, and over a billion people have no access to electricity at all. In order to meet the growing demand in the world, a balanced and reliable system of energy-generating products is needed, that is, an energy mix which, according to projections, should continue to be made up of 60% fossil fuels, which are necessary for the stability of grids. Renewable energy should be the fastest growing segment, and 95% of global demand will come from India, China, Asia, Middle East and Africa – Amir Mujezinovic, GE's steam-electric power plant expert explained to the press in Karlsruhe.
According to him, the projections for the global energy market show that, by 2025, the additional capacities of coal and nuclear energy will grow significantly, and that coal, with nearly 900 billion tons of reserves, will remain a vital part of the energy mix, as a self-sufficient and accessible energy-generating product which secures energy safety. Japan, for example, plans to build as many as 20 new fossil-fuel power plants.
Ante Ramljak, former adviser to the Croatian minister of energy, also believes that coal as an energy-generating product is definitely one of the acceptable options to consider.
– We visited the roof of RDK8, which has been operating at full capacity for two years now, and made sure that there's not a speck of coal dust there, which speaks for itself about how small a pollutant coal is with the application of modern technologies – Ramljak concluded.
Unstable electricity market
Georg Stamatelopoulos, CEO of EnBW, estimated that, even with the latest technology and efficiency, RDK faced difficulties in the German electricity market, since the country was going through a transition and had decided to stop using nuclear energy.
– When the decision was made in 2008 to build Unit 8, it was a good move, but we probably wouldn't decide to do the same today, due to the state of the market. The production price of electricity in Germany is currently EUR 27 per MWh, and, for the sake of comparison, when we started building Unit 8, it was around EUR 40 and was expected to rise up to EUR 50!
Marko Andrejic
The business portal eKapija has had the opportunity, along with the group of media from the countries of former Yugoslavia and Poland, to visit the power plant and witness first-hand the advantages of modern technologies in the production of electrical energy.
More precisely, Germany's switch to renewable energy sources demanded the existence of a stable base load, which could provide, at any moment, a continual, reliable and flexible power supply. In addition to that, the emission of harmful gases needed to be kept at a minimum and the owners of power plants had to renew their increasingly old capacities with modern, efficient facilities, to which end the construction of RDK8 began in 2008.
An investment worth EUR 1.3 billion
The intention was to satisfy the growing needs of EnBW (Energie Baden-Wurttemberg AG), a German company for the production of electric energy, one of the largest such companies in Europe, with a long-term goal of replacing the existing fossil-fuel power plants and nuclear power plants, which Germany plans to shut down in the years to come.
– The new power plant gives a significant contribution to providing the power supply, while simultaneously supporting one of Germany's most important industrial regions. In order to provide the best value to its clients and reduce the environmental impact of its activities to a minimum, EnBW needed the most efficient solution, which is exactly what General Electric has delivered – said Georg Stamatelopoulos, member of the Board of Directors of EnBW on the occasion of the visit by the press to RDK8 in Karlsruhe.
(Georg Stamatelopoulos) Stamatelopoulos pointed out that the new facility had made possible the reduction of the emission of harmful gasses and lower operating costs.
– RDK has an installed capacity of 1,800MW, and Unit 8, which started operating in April 2014, alone produces 912MW of electricity, with a capacity of 220MWth for district heating. The investment in this facility amounted to EUR 1.3 billion – Stamatelopoulos stated and reminded that the income of EnBW, which provides for 5.5 billion users and employs 20,000 employees, amounted to more than EUR 21 billion in 2015.
The power plant on the river Rhine uses only 1-2% of coal from Germany, whereas the rest is imported by river and railway from South Africa, Columbia, Poland, USA... Even including transportation costs, the imported coal is cheaper than the local coal by around 20%, and around 1,000 ships are unloaded in Karlsruhe annually.
The advantage of RDK8 also consists of the flexibility of fuel, as it can use different types of coal, as well as 20-25% of biomass. The ashes produced by coal combustion are stored in silos and than sold, mostly to the construction industry.
Coal as a vital ingredient of the energy mix
In carrying out the planning, procurement and construction of the energy unit at RDK8, General Electric has employed its best technology and expert knowledge in the area of large-scale power plants in order to ensure the superior performance. This entails an 'ultra supercritical steam generator' with a furnace system, a steam turbine with a turbo generator, and a complete water/steam cycle.
Considering the rate of efficiency, it is expected that the operator of RDK8 will reduce the emission of C02 by 40% and save 275,000 tons of coal a year, compared to the global average of conventional fuel-fossil power plants.
– Nowadays, two billion people have no access to a sufficient amount of energy or to reliable energy, and over a billion people have no access to electricity at all. In order to meet the growing demand in the world, a balanced and reliable system of energy-generating products is needed, that is, an energy mix which, according to projections, should continue to be made up of 60% fossil fuels, which are necessary for the stability of grids. Renewable energy should be the fastest growing segment, and 95% of global demand will come from India, China, Asia, Middle East and Africa – Amir Mujezinovic, GE's steam-electric power plant expert explained to the press in Karlsruhe.
According to him, the projections for the global energy market show that, by 2025, the additional capacities of coal and nuclear energy will grow significantly, and that coal, with nearly 900 billion tons of reserves, will remain a vital part of the energy mix, as a self-sufficient and accessible energy-generating product which secures energy safety. Japan, for example, plans to build as many as 20 new fossil-fuel power plants.
Ante Ramljak, former adviser to the Croatian minister of energy, also believes that coal as an energy-generating product is definitely one of the acceptable options to consider.
– We visited the roof of RDK8, which has been operating at full capacity for two years now, and made sure that there's not a speck of coal dust there, which speaks for itself about how small a pollutant coal is with the application of modern technologies – Ramljak concluded.
Unstable electricity market
Georg Stamatelopoulos, CEO of EnBW, estimated that, even with the latest technology and efficiency, RDK faced difficulties in the German electricity market, since the country was going through a transition and had decided to stop using nuclear energy.
– When the decision was made in 2008 to build Unit 8, it was a good move, but we probably wouldn't decide to do the same today, due to the state of the market. The production price of electricity in Germany is currently EUR 27 per MWh, and, for the sake of comparison, when we started building Unit 8, it was around EUR 40 and was expected to rise up to EUR 50!
Marko Andrejic
Companies:
General Electric International Beograd
Tags:
General Electric
Karlsruhe
RDK
Energie Baden Wurttemberg AG
EnBW
Rheinhafen Dampfkraftwerk
steam electric power plant RDK8
Georg Stamatelopoulos
fossil fuels
renewable energy sources
Amir Mujezinovic
Ante Ramljak
price of electricity
ashes
CO2
coal
construction industry
silo
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