Analysis of the Advanced Turbine System Program on Innovation in Natural Gas Technology

Kelly A Stevens

doi:10.3390/en13195057

Abstract

This study evaluates the impact of a U.S. government-sponsored research program on advanced natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) innovations in the 1990s. From 1992–2000, the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) partnered with turbine manufacturers General Electric (GE) and Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation (SWPC) in a cost-sharing partnership called the Advanced Turbine System program to promote efficiency innovations for NGCC technology. Using data from the European Patent Office’s worldwide patent database (PATSTAT), this study evaluates advanced turbine technology innovations by the program participants and their competitors. Using a negative binomial model, this approach shows GE increased the relative quantity of their patents towards the end of the program and afterwards, indicating the program led to more advanced NGCC innovations for GE. SWPC, on the other hand, had higher patent citations for patents filed during the DOE program relative to competitors, indicating SWPC had higher-quality advanced NGCC innovations due to new partnerships from the U.S. DOE program. However, this analysis reveals there was not a lack of this activity taking place before the program started, and that the overall impact of the program appears small based on the patent analysis.

Highlights

In 2018, natural gas-fired generators provided just over 35% of all electricity generation in the United States, surpassing coal-fired generation on an annual basis for the first time in history in 2016 [1].While the increased use of natural gas for generation is attributable to many factors, one important aspect is the technological improvements rendering natural gas-fired combined cycle generators (NGCC) relatively clean, efficient, and cheap
Since DOE’s Advanced Turbine System (DOE-ATS) targeted U.S innovations, only patent applications that were eventually awarded as patents through the United States Patenting and Trademark Office (USPTO) are used for the analysis
The model coefficients and confidence intervals displayed in the figures have been transformed to incidence-rate ratios (IRR), which is the exponentiated version of the negative binomial coefficient

Summary

Introduction

In 2018, natural gas-fired generators provided just over 35% of all electricity generation in the United States, surpassing coal-fired generation on an annual basis for the first time in history in 2016 [1].While the increased use of natural gas for generation is attributable to many factors, one important aspect is the technological improvements rendering natural gas-fired combined cycle generators (NGCC) relatively clean, efficient, and cheap. NGCC provide almost 90% of all natural gas-fired generation in the U.S [2], have lower emissions compared to coal generation, and have the potential to complement intermittent renewable generators with fast ramp speeds. They are projected to remain a predominant source of electricity generation in the U.S [3] and play a role in deep decarbonization of the electricity sector by replacing coal generation and assisting with integration of intermittent renewable sources of generation [4].

Methods

Results

Conclusion