Power plant services represent a growing market that offers steady revenues and solid growth, in contrast with the much more cyclical market for new-build power stations. Fastest growing regions of China, India and ASEAN to account for almost quarter of the market by 2017, but China will not overtake the USA before 2025.

In the developed regions of Europe and North America, the main drivers are ageing power capacities that need replacing and, linked to this, the growing adoption of gas-fired generation.

Key drivers in emerging markets are rapid electricity demand growth, and industry privatization and liberalization which, in turn, push outsourcing of services. In the developed world, meanwhile, utilities struggling with skills shortages are also increasingly relying on outsourced services.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan World Power Plant Services Markets finds that the markets earned revenue of $27.40 billion in 2011 and estimates this to reach$35.41 billion in 2017.

“Global growth in electricity demand is a key driver behind the growth of the power plant services market,” notes Frost & Sullivan Industry Director Harald Thaler. “As electricity demand rises, new generating capacities are added to the system, which in turn, require servicing.”

The services market is, however, forecast to grow somewhat more rapidly than electricity demand. The global correlation, comparing forecast growth for both indicators, is 1.55.

Whilst the services market is forecast to grow by 4.2% between 2010 and 2017, world electricity demand growth will be 2.7% over that same period. Greater outsourcing and the increasing proliferation of gas-fired technology, where reliance on the equipment providers for servicing is high, are major contributory factors.

“Geographically, the balance of power in the power plant services market will gradually shift towards the emerging economies, as they progressively liberalize not only their power but also their gas markets,” remarks Thaler. “Such trends will allow for a much greater penetration of modern gas-fired plants which attract higher outsourced maintenance spend.”

The fastest-growing regions will be the emerging Asian giants of China, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Their combined share will rise from 18.1% in 2010 to 23.4% in 2017.

Gas turbines account for the largest share of the services market, globally. Their share will expand, albeit slowly, as ongoing coal-fired investments based on increasingly sophisticated supercritical technology fuel growth in emerging economies. This will partly offset the strong growth in gas-fired generation in some other parts of the world.

“Unlike in the market for new-build power plants, where China has been the leading world market for some time, the country’s position in the power plant services market is much more modest,” concludes Thaler. “Frost & Sullivan forecasts that in the lucrative services market, China will not overtake the USA before 2025.”

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American Security Project released the 2012 edition of its annual White Paper “America’s Energy Choices.” The paper details a range of options for America’s energy future, ranging from coal and natural gas to solar and tidal power.

The report sets out how each contributes to America’s energy make-up and how business and political leaders should weigh the competing priorities of energy security, economic stability, and environmental sustainability when making decisions.

“The domestic boom in fossil fuel production, particularly from shale gas and shale oil, is changing America’s views about energy security, while the development that American refiners have become major exporters of refined fuels has surprised many,” said Andrew Holland , Senior Fellow for Energy and Climate and the author of the report.

On the other hand Stephen A. Cheney, the CEO of the American Security Project, said that the politics of energy remain as frozen as they were then.

“Clean energy has become an even greater political football, while the return of rising oil prices has brought out the most short-term instincts in politicians. The way energy is used is clearly a national security issue. In the next decade the United States needs to make critical energy choices. We know we cannot carry on as we have been — the price of gas is but one example. We need to be more innovative and develop new technologies,” Cheney said.

“The choices we make on energy need to be informed by reality, not partisan bickering. This is what the American Security Project is here to do: forge that consensus for us to successfully move forward. We can solve these problems and in so doing increase national security.”

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Research from SRI International has identified a promising new way to produce liquid transportation fuels from coal without consuming water or generating carbon dioxide. Based on data from bench-scale tests, SRI engineers estimate that the capital cost for a full-scale plant using SRI’s process would be less than half that of a conventional coal-to-liquids plant that uses a process called Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. FTS produces only a small fraction of the hydrocarbons needed for fuel and requires extensive recycling.

SRI’s new process uses natural gas to provide the hydrogen needed to convert coal to syngas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen). Syngas is first converted into methanol, which can then be efficiently processed to make transportation fuels.

Using natural gas eliminates the need to add water as a source of hydrogen, reduces the need to add energy to drive the gasification reaction, and results in the use of a smaller gasifier. In conventional CTL approaches, energy is supplied by burning a portion of the coal feed, which then produces carbon dioxide. SRI’s approach makes it economical to use carbon neutral electricity, such as nuclear, hydro, or solar as a source of additional energy.

“The implications of this research are expansive, including enhancing U.S. energy security through the use of domestic carbon sources,” said Robert Wilson, Ph.D., director, Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, SRI International. “The process can also dramatically reduce the environmental footprint associated with alternative transportation fuels.”

SRI performed a series of analyses to examine the environmental impact of the technology under several scenarios. Based on these analyses, if diesel were produced using biogas as the source of methane, the resulting product would qualify as an alternative fuel under the revised Renewable Fuels Standard of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The Act requires alternative fuels to meet a standard of 50 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to other fuels.

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