Power generation with natural gas-fired gas turbines

A revolution is underway in electricity generating technology that may soon radically transform the power industry in both industrial and developing countries. This revolution involves not an exotic new technology, but rather an upgrading of the familiar but little-used gas turbine, the neglected step-sister of the steam turbine in power generation. The electric power industry needs a technological revolution, since business-as-usual is becoming increasingly untenable. Public concerns about nuclear power risks and the environmental problems posed by fossil fuel power plants have made electric utility planning more and more difficult. The historical attraction of the gas turbine for utilities has been its low cost, $300 per kW22 or less, a small fraction of the cost of coal or nuclear power plants. An early major milestone in the history of the gas turbine was the initiation of German and British programs in the mid-1930s to explore the use of gas turbines for aircraft propulsion.