gas

  • Practical Considerations for Converting Boilers to Burn Gas

    Many utilities have taken advantage of relatively low-cost natural gas to address environmental pressures and upgrade their power generation portfolio in one of three distinct ways—replace, repower, or

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  • Reciprocating Engines Continue to Be Flexible Workhorses

    Gas Power Reciprocating gas engines find work in multiple power generation applications, from providing fast-start backup generating capacity for intermittent renewable resources to offering scalable and

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  • Challenging Power Market Hurting Plant Valuations

    Pressures on competitive power markets have fueled substantial declines in plant valuations over the past five years, with coal plants taking the brunt of the damage. That’s the conclusion of a new report from financial services firm Fitch Ratings released on Wednesday. The report, which calculated the net present value of plants across the country […]

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  • Washington Think Tank Scopes Out State Shale Gas Regulation

    U.S. states vary widely on how they are regulating the booming business of producing natural gas from shale formations, according to a study released this summer by the Washington environmental think tank Resources for the Future (RFF). “As the shale gas boom has taken off,” says RFF, “states have updated their regulations, each with varying […]

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  • BP: King Coal Keeps the Worldwide Throne Against the Gas Challenger

    The revolution that has toppled coal from the top of the generating queue in the U.S. has not reached the rest of the world, according to the “BP Statistical Review of World Energy.” While natural gas may have supplanted coal as king of the hill in the U.S. electric generating mix, the solid mineral—geographically the […]

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  • The Challenge of Methane Emissions: How Important, How to Detect

    Much recent debate about shale gas recovery through horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has focused on methane emissions from shale gas wells. The general take on this topic is that methane (the remarkably simple molecule CH4) is a greenhouse gas “20 times” or “25 times,” or some other number, more “potent” than carbon dioxide, the […]

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  • Trend: Is Shale Gas a U.S.-Only Phenomenon, or Does It Have Farther Reach?

    The shale gas revolution has so far been a U.S. phenomenon. But hydrocarbon-containing Devonian shale formations are far from a U.S. or even North American phenomenon. Geologic forces didn’t follow political boundaries in the Devonian period 400 million to 300 million years ago. Indeed, the continents then were not where they are today by large […]

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  • Renewable Intermittency Is Real

    If you’ve been paying attention to energy issues in the media lately, you may have encountered a curious narrative that’s starting to gain traction among supporters of renewable energy. Namely, that the core problem with wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) generation, which is matching moment-to-moment demand with the intermittency wind and sunlight, isn’t really a […]

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  • Germany Sounds Retreat on Gas-Fired Power

      If you’ve seen U.S. coal industry executives casting wistful glances across the Atlantic recently, there’s a reason. In the U.S., natural gas is enjoying a boom unseen in decades, perhaps ever. New production from shale should make the country a net exporter within a decade. New gas-fired plants are starting up almost as fast […]

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  • More Than 5.5 GW of Generation Switched to Gas Since 2011, Says SNL Energy Study

      As environmental regulations continue their forward march and gas prices remain low compared to historic rates due to increased domestic supply, the number of power plants changing their primary fuel source to natural gas has increased dramatically. In 2011 and 2012, just more than 5.5 GW of power plant capacity switched to burning primarily […]

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