Large power plants would achieve significant fuel savings and thus greatly reduce their carbon dioxide emissions as a result of such an increase.
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But for the most part, large power plants cannot shutdown for just one hour as there are thermal and mechanical concerns that put the plant at risk of being damaged for doing so.
The cost of producing solar electricity by large solar power plants plummeted from 31 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2009 to 14 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2012.
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That is pretty much how large nuclear power plants operate.
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Most of its profit now comes from constructing large solar power plants and selling them to debt-financed shell companies set up solely for the purpose of locking in a fixed yield based on electricity sales to utilities.
"New large-scale power plants and some existing assets are not economically viable in the current environment, " says Matthias Hartung, chief executive of RWE Generation, which bundles RWE's German, Dutch and UK power plants.
Google Earth for siting large-scale electric power plants in the United States.
Secondly, when considering end-to-end efficiency, it is much less energy-intensive to heat water by direct use of natural gas on-site, rather than by using that natural gas to first make electricity that is used to heat water because of the large conversion losses at power plants.
About 2, 100 National Guard troops will be dispatched throughout New York state, with a large concentration at stationed at power plants, Grand Central Station, Penn Station and the George Washington Bridge.
The emissions implications of increased wind power penetration is to a large extent determined by the portfolio of other power plants.
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It was a key element of the deal Washington made with Pyongyang to provide North Korea with fuel for electric power plants until two large civilian nuclear stations are completed.
In the United States, over the past five years, thanks in part to tax credits from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and ratepayer-funded subsidies for renewable energy, more than 150 large-scale wood-burning power plants have been proposed around the country, said Booth and Sheehan.
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The 80% efficiency seen in combined heat and power plants, known as cogeneration plants, is ideally suited for large institutions--universities, hospitals, airports--that have extensive electricity and thermal energy demand in a concentrated area.
Like nuclear power plants, advanced coal power plants can only be sited within about 20 miles of a large body of water to meet cooling needs.
From the Bush White House, they're talking about large-scale technology: oil and gas, nuclear power plants and clean coal research, which will cost billions of dollars and will take years.
Because of the very large amounts of capital tied up in homes, buildings, power plants and industrial and transportation equipment, gradually transitioning to a capital stock that emits less carbon dioxide is much less expensive than an abrupt change.
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The production of modern wind turbines, solar panels and nuclear power plants are extremely energy-intensive enterprises, and are by and large powered by the burning of fossil fuels.
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In meetings in recent days, representatives of electric power utilities that rely heavily on coal-fired plants, and some large unions, have taken their concerns to the White House.
The picture is very different in the electricity industry, where large privatised firms from many rich countries are falling over themselves to build and run power plants in developing countries.
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