Gas-fired power plant

Gas-fired power plants generate almost a quarter of world electricity and are significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

They are also much more closely integrated with the devices they power—often an electric generator—and the secondary-energy equipment that is used to recover residual energy (largely heat).

They range in size from portable mobile plants to large, complex systems weighing more than a hundred tonnes housed in purpose-built buildings.

[4] For 2018, GE offers its 826 MW HA at over 64% efficiency in combined cycle due to advances in additive manufacturing and combustion breakthroughs, up from 63.7% in 2017 orders and on track to achieve 65% by the early 2020s.

In areas with a shortage of base-load and load following power plant capacity or with low fuel costs, a gas turbine powerplant may regularly operate most hours of the day.

A large single-cycle gas turbine typically produces 100 to 400 megawatts of electric power and has 35–40% thermodynamic efficiency.

[10] Reciprocating internal combustion engines tend to be under 20 MW, thus much smaller than other types of natural gas-fired electricity generator, and are typically used for emergency power or to balance variable renewable energy such as wind and solar.

[11] Relatively efficient gas-fired power stations – such as those based on combined cycle gas turbines – emit about 450 grams (16 oz) of CO2 per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated.