Running in Place

Abstract

This article highlights technological performance improvements in the gas turbine industry and its likely future course. While the outlook for commercial aviation gas turbines is bright, the non-aviation segment is decidedly clouded. While analysts have focused on the growing demand for electricity worldwide, the average output of each individual gas turbine unit is also increasing, and at a rate that is faster than that of electricity demand. Gas turbine power plants also have the advantage of dispatchability, which wind, hydroelectric, and solar often do not. A recent econometric study of renewable electric power implementation shows that the use of fast-reacting fossil technologies such as gas turbines to hedge against variability of electrical supply made it more likely to result in the successful investment and use of renewables. The article suggests that gas turbine power plants are cost-effective and can provide a necessary backup to the variability of renewable power plants. Gas turbines combine low cost and fast reaction time in a way that will enable the grid to handle winds dying down unexpectedly or unpredicted heavy clouds diminishing solar power output.