Because coal power is cheaper than natural gas power, the switch will jack up your utility bills.
But long term, I think it's foolhardy to just build natural-gas power plants.
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Still, even with LNG, gas power will cost roughly 9 cents per kwh.
Specifically, electricity from natural gas power plants comes at less than half the cost of electricity from coal generators.
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Yet wind and solar power are, and will continue to be, far more expensive than coal and natural gas power.
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At Peterhead, Shell and SSE plan to retrofit part of the existing gas power station to capture CO2 emissions after combustion.
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The announcement comes as reports suggest Chancellor George Osborne will use Wednesday's Autumn Statement to propose the building of 30 additional gas power station.
Utilities could use a type of natural gas power plants that can turn on and produce power quickly to make up for any shortfall.
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Moreover, during this period, he expected carbon capture and storage technology to become cost-effective, thus helping to reduce or eliminate emissions from gas power stations.
And Andy Atkins, executive director at Friends of the Earth, which backed the letter, said Mr Osborne's support for gas power was looking "increasingly isolated".
Solar energy proponents want the price of solar electricity to fall so that it could better compete with cheaper power from coal and natural gas power plants.
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The company has begun an effort to improve its standing with local communities in the last decade by building clinics, roads and even natural gas power plants.
In other words, instead of building big new gas power stations to back up renewable turbines, even Britain could be looking to Aggreko to plug in its generators.
The massive shale gas resource in America, coupled with the high-efficiency and low emissions of modern gas power plants, gives us a handy solution to future power needs.
Lord Smith says it is important the UK develops its own reserves of shale gas, so long as gas power stations are able to store the resulting CO2 emissions in the future.
The primary alternatives such as coal, oil and natural gas power plants also pose dangers to nearby residents who breathe in fine pollutants released by the combustion of these fuels.
"The reason why it is cheap is that gas power requires lower investments than coal and nuclear power plants, " the head of Statoil's gas division, Rune Bjornson, told BBC News.
Key decisions on how to ensure there are enough gas power stations to keep the lights on when the wind is not blowing will be announced alongside the chancellor's Autumn Statement.
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Natural gas power promises substantial environmental improvements over coal.
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But in the short term, at least, coal will remain a key source of energy for the U.S. mainly because the cost of running coal and natural gas power plants remains comparable.
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For important pollutants monitored by the EPA, natural gas power cuts carbon monoxide emissions by 81%, nitrogen oxide emissions by 80%, sulfur dioxide emissions by 99%, mercury emissions by 100%, and particulates by 99%.
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The funding is part of an initiative called SunShot, which was launched in early 2011 to make solar electricity cheap to produce and therefore competitive against energy from coal or natural gas power plants.
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Declining module prices are expected to help drive down the costs of solar energy and eventually make it competitive with traditional sources of energy such as coal and gas power plants, even without government subsidies.
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Now GE sells wind turbines, smart grid systems and oil and gas technology around the world, as well as the big gas power turbines that made it an industry leader in the U.S. a long time ago.
Importantly, the EIA projects that over the lifetime of newly constructed power plants going into operation in the year 2016, natural gas power will be 33% less expensive than what is currently the least expensive power source, coal.
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Natural gas power plants can increase or decrease their production relatively quickly, and that ability could help to make up for any shortfall in wind or solar generation, which varies depending on weather conditions, in order to meet demand.
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Liberal Democrats are happy to see more gas power in the short term but insist that the UK should continue to support renewables, such as wind power, to ensure that people are insulated against possible future rises in gas prices.
Yes, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations that economically punish coal power plants are somewhat responsible for the shift to natural gas power, but so too are technological advances and new natural gas discoveries that have dramatically reduced the price of natural gas.
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With a limited amount of credits and no cap on the price a credit can fetch, the market would be left to figure out the most economic way to provide cleaner electricity (which these days would be to build a natural gas power plant).
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