Does Singapore's electricity needs justify the plans for a coal-fired power plant?
Tuas Power Plans Singapore's First Coal-Fired Plant
Tuas Power Ltd., the Singapore electricity producer sold in March to China's Huaneng Power International Inc., plans to spend S$2 billion ($1.4 billion) to build the nation's first coal-fired cogeneration power plant.
The project on Jurong Island will also include a desalination plant and a waste-water treatment facility, the company said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. The complex is expected to start operations in 2011, it said.
Singapore is diversifying its fuel mix from predominantly cleaner gas-fired power plants to cheaper, although dirtier, coal. The country releases 12.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide per capita compared with a global average of 4.3 tons, according to the World Bank Web site.
"The new owners are a coal company, but they have to deal with imported coal and large yards to store it and that may drive costs higher than a gas-fired station," said Tony Regan, a consultant with Nexant Ltd. "A coal-fired plant is a much bigger footprint and there's also the issue of the environment."
Tuas Power's planned plant will be 80 percent fueled by coal, with the rest from biomass, chiefly woodchips and palm kernel shells, the company said.
In March, Beijing-based China Huaneng agreed to pay S$4.24 billion for Tuas Power, the smallest of three generators that supply 90 percent of the island-state's electricity. Tuas Power and Senoko Power Ltd. have been sold by state investment fund Temasek Holdings Pte, while PowerSeraya Ltd. may be disposed of before the end of the year.
Gas, Coal Prices
Prices of liquefied natural gas rose to a record $25 per million British thermal units this year while Asian coal prices have more than doubled to records on rising consumption and transport bottlenecks in Australia and South Africa.
The introduction of coal into the country's energy mix comes after the government accelerated the conversion of oil-fired plants to gas-fueled combined cycle power plants in the 1990s.
Senoko Power, the country's biggest utility, invested $600 million in 1999 to convert three oil-fired units of 120 megawatts each into gas generators.
The move increased the efficiency of generation to more than 40 percent from 36 percent and reduced carbon-dioxide emissions by about 2.5 million tons a year. Singapore generated 38 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2004.
Tuas Power's existing plant consists of four blocks of gas- fired combined cycle plants and two units of steam plants with a total generating capacity of 2,670 megawatts, according to the company's Web site. It accounts for more than one-fourth of Singapore's electricity output.
The project on Jurong Island will also include a desalination plant and a waste-water treatment facility, the company said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. The complex is expected to start operations in 2011, it said.
Singapore is diversifying its fuel mix from predominantly cleaner gas-fired power plants to cheaper, although dirtier, coal. The country releases 12.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide per capita compared with a global average of 4.3 tons, according to the World Bank Web site.
"The new owners are a coal company, but they have to deal with imported coal and large yards to store it and that may drive costs higher than a gas-fired station," said Tony Regan, a consultant with Nexant Ltd. "A coal-fired plant is a much bigger footprint and there's also the issue of the environment."
Tuas Power's planned plant will be 80 percent fueled by coal, with the rest from biomass, chiefly woodchips and palm kernel shells, the company said.
In March, Beijing-based China Huaneng agreed to pay S$4.24 billion for Tuas Power, the smallest of three generators that supply 90 percent of the island-state's electricity. Tuas Power and Senoko Power Ltd. have been sold by state investment fund Temasek Holdings Pte, while PowerSeraya Ltd. may be disposed of before the end of the year.
Gas, Coal Prices
Prices of liquefied natural gas rose to a record $25 per million British thermal units this year while Asian coal prices have more than doubled to records on rising consumption and transport bottlenecks in Australia and South Africa.
The introduction of coal into the country's energy mix comes after the government accelerated the conversion of oil-fired plants to gas-fueled combined cycle power plants in the 1990s.
Senoko Power, the country's biggest utility, invested $600 million in 1999 to convert three oil-fired units of 120 megawatts each into gas generators.
The move increased the efficiency of generation to more than 40 percent from 36 percent and reduced carbon-dioxide emissions by about 2.5 million tons a year. Singapore generated 38 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2004.
Tuas Power's existing plant consists of four blocks of gas- fired combined cycle plants and two units of steam plants with a total generating capacity of 2,670 megawatts, according to the company's Web site. It accounts for more than one-fourth of Singapore's electricity output.
Being a China-based coal-dependent company, is China Huaneng truly considering the environmental impact a coal-fired plant can make in tiny Singapore?
posted by Charltonmedia.com @ 2:03 AM
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