IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijetpo/v2y2004i1-2p52-69.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experience curves for power plant emission control technologies

Author

Listed:
  • Edward S. Rubin
  • Sonia Yeh
  • David A. Hounshell
  • Margaret R. Taylor

Abstract

This paper examines past experience in controlling emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from coal-fired electric power plants. In particular, we focus on US and worldwide experience with two major environmental control technologies: flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) systems for SO2 control and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems for NOx control. We quantitatively characterise historical trends in the deployment and costs of these technologies over the past 30 years, and use these data to develop quantitative "experience curves" to characterise the rates of cost reduction as a function of cumulative installed capacity of each technology. We explore the key factors responsible for the observed trends, especially the development of regulatory policies for SO2 and NOx control and their implications for environmental control technology innovation. We further discuss some of the key technical innovations that have contributed to cost reductions over time. Finally, we discuss the relevance of these findings to other environmental issues of current interest, especially the outlook for technological progress in carbon capture and sequestration technologies applicable to fossil fuelled electric power plants.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward S. Rubin & Sonia Yeh & David A. Hounshell & Margaret R. Taylor, 2004. "Experience curves for power plant emission control technologies," International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(1/2), pages 52-69.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijetpo:v:2:y:2004:i:1/2:p:52-69
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=4587
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karali, Nihan & Park, Won Young & McNeil, Michael, 2017. "Modeling technological change and its impact on energy savings in the U.S. iron and steel sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 447-458.
    2. Sakti, Apurba & Azevedo, Inês M.L. & Fuchs, Erica R.H. & Michalek, Jeremy J. & Gallagher, Kevin G. & Whitacre, Jay F., 2017. "Consistency and robustness of forecasting for emerging technologies: The case of Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 415-426.
    3. Liu, Jiangfeng & Zhang, Qi & Li, Hailong & Chen, Siyuan & Teng, Fei, 2022. "Investment decision on carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies—A real option model based on technology learning effect," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    4. Neij, Lena, 2008. "Cost development of future technologies for power generation--A study based on experience curves and complementary bottom-up assessments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 2200-2211, June.
    5. Upstill, Garrett & Hall, Peter, 2018. "Estimating the learning rate of a technology with multiple variants: The case of carbon storage," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 498-505.
    6. Yeh, Sonia & Rubin, Edward S., 2012. "A review of uncertainties in technology experience curves," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 762-771.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijetpo:v:2:y:2004:i:1/2:p:52-69. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=12 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.