Abstract
BackgroundIn order to achieve the German greenhouse gas reduction targets, in particular, CO2 emissions of coal-fired power plants must be reduced. The co-incineration of biomass-based substitutes, here referred to as co-firing, is regarded as a highly cost-effective and short-term method of reducing CO2 emissions in the electricity sector. Another advantage of co-firing is its ability to meet base load demands and offer controllability. In this paper, we, therefore, evaluate the effectiveness of co-firing as a CO2 mitigation strategy in the German electricity sector by 2020.MethodsWe consider the co-firing of three different substitutes: wood chips, industry pellets and torrefied biomass. Likewise, a comparison with three alternative mitigation strategies is part of the evaluation. We use seven sustainability indicators covering social, ecological and economic aspects as the basis for the evaluation. These sustainability indicators are determined by means of a merit order model, which enables us to simulate the electricity market in 2020 on an hourly basis and adjust it based on the assumption of widespread implementation of co-firing or one of the alternative mitigation strategies.ResultsOur results show that all mitigation strategies have a significant potential to reduce the CO2 emissions of the electricity sector. Compared with the alternative mitigation strategies, co-firing is characterised on the one hand by rather low mitigation potentials and on the other hand by low CO2 mitigation costs. The co-firing of industry pellets appears to have the most advantageous combination of mitigation potential and mitigation costs.ConclusionsThe widespread implementation of co-firing with industry pellets until 2020 would have led to 21% reduction in CO2 emissions on average. Nevertheless, it cannot be implemented immediately because time is needed for political decisions to be taken and, afterwards, for the technical retrofitting of power plants. Co-firing will, therefore, not be available to contribute to the achievement of the greenhouse gas reduction targets for the year 2020. However, our approach can be used to assess the contribution of the various CO2 mitigation strategies to the ambitious mitigation targets for the year 2030.
Highlights
In order to achieve the German greenhouse gas reduction targets, in particular, Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of coalfired power plants must be reduced
The main emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG) is electricity generation in lignite- and hard coal-fired power plants, which amounts to 73% of the energy sector emission and 30% of the total German CO2 emission [2]
Approach In order to assess the effectiveness of co-firing as a CO2 mitigation strategy and compare it with three alternative CO2 mitigation strategies, we developed a new approach (Fig. 1) that takes into account different possible development pathways of the electricity market dynamics by 2020, the power plant operators’ economic motivation to retrofit their power plants for co-firing or to apply one of the alternative mitigation strategies, the technical constraints of co-firing biomass-based substitutes in coal-fired power plants and the maximum available biomass potential in Germany
Summary
In order to achieve the German greenhouse gas reduction targets, in particular, CO2 emissions of coalfired power plants must be reduced. The co-incineration of biomass-based substitutes, here referred to as co-firing, is regarded as a highly cost-effective and short-term method of reducing CO2 emissions in the electricity sector. Another advantage of co-firing is its ability to meet base load demands and offer controllability. In order to determine Germany’s contribution to this goal, the German government ratified the climate protection plan in 2016 and defined greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. The main emitter of GHG is electricity generation in lignite- and hard coal-fired power plants, which amounts to 73% of the energy sector emission and 30% of the total German CO2 emission [2]
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