Quote:
Originally Posted by RedDevil
I once had a tour round the Amer power plants in Geertruidenberg, the Netherlands. The biggest power plant in Holland at the time.
They were mainly using coal and a bit of natural gas.
Their 3-stage steam turbines and air-jet mattress burning bed (for near total combustion) made them close to 60% efficiënt measured from the caloric value of the coal to electricity delivered to the net; claiming a total efficiëncy of around 50% from coal to house applicances, including transport and conversion losses.
That was July 1982. If 50% was possible then how come there are still plants around that perform significantly less?
A greater demand will no doubt make it more profitable to build fuel efficient power plants.
The electric car would thereby help, not hurt, the environment.
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I'm calling BS on the 50% efficiency claim! peak steam cycle efficiency with today's top of the line super heated steam plants is 40%
maximum. That is about the thermal dynamic limit. To exceed that you have to go to a binary vapor cycle (biggest was just 40MW) or Kalina cycle (of which are currently only small scale up to 3.6 MW).