Since 1985, the relative efficiency of steam power plants has been improved by 20 per cent. Steam power plants based on black coal currently achieve efficiencies of 46 per cent. Lignite drying, which is currently under development, utilises waste heat with temperatures just above 100 °C. As soon as this is implemented on a large scale, these efficiencies will also be possible with steam power plants based on lignite.
New coal-fired power plants constructed according to the current level of technology, which have efficiencies of around 46 per cent relative to the amount of electricity generated, produce approximately 30 per cent less CO2 than old coal-fired power plants.
Thanks to optimised system technology (BoA), the lignite-fired, new-build power plant project in Neurath-Grevenbroich achieves an efficiency of more than 43 per cent with steam parameters of 600 °C and 272 bar. ©RWE
