Thursday, August 22, 2013

Chesapeake to Get More Power

Dallas-based independent power developer Panda Power Funds will build the proposed 859MW combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) Panda Mattawoman power plant, in Brandywine, southern Maryland, near the US capital of Washington DC. The Mattawoman project, scheduled for commissioning in 2016, is intended to cover the gap between power supply and demand in the region.
I, for one, think it might be educational if the enviro-ninnies in charge of Washington D.C. experienced a few years of insufficient power.  Unfortunately, given that they have the legislative and executive authority, I'm sure us rural bumpkins would suffer brownouts before they do.

Once operational, the CCGT plant will provide enough electricity to power 859,000 homes in the Greater Maryland and Washington DC metropolitan area. The plant is situated approximately 565 yards from the nearest road in an existing I-2 heavy industrial zone.
The Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine is an interesting technology, where the heat from the burning natural gas is used twice, first to turn the gas turbine (basically like a jet engine running on natural gas) and then the hot gases from that are used to boil water for a steam generator.  This increases the amount of energy for the amount of fuel used.

The Panda Mattawoman plant will have emissions control technology, the operator said. Like many gas-fired power plants, it is being planned termed a zero-liquid-discharge, which means it will not require waste water to a treatment facility treatment Chesapeake Bay. The cooling system at the plant will run on recycled municipal waste water.
So it should have essentially zero impact on the Chesapeake Bay.  Other than CO2, of course, which can be a limiting resource for the phytoplankton that grow in the Bay.

This of course, is due almost entirely to fracking, which has made natural gas a relatively cheap and clean source of power for the United States.  No wonder the libs keep trying to kill it.

No comments:

Post a Comment