Steaming ahead

and

have agreed on a contract to provide a steam turbine unit for the new fossil-fuel power plant at Maasvlakte power station in the Netherlands.

The new power plant, located near the North Sea and the Rotterdam harbour, will be able to co-fire biomass and is being designed for retrofitting with carbon capture technology.

As part of the agreement Alstom will provide a 1,110MW steam turbine generator package and will carry out transport to the site, deployment, commissioning and trial runs. The technology is expected to contribute to a total efficiency of 46 per cent, compared with a European average of 36 per cent.

Aris Blankenspoor, general project manager of E.ON’s Maasvlakte Power Plant 3 project, said: ‘New boiler technology, with super-critical steam parameters of 285 bar and 620°C, is key to an efficiency improvement of about 20 per cent per KW. We need less coal for the same amount of energy. Our flue-gas treatment results in the lowest possible specific emissions, for example, for dust, SO₂, CO₂ and NOx. Therefore, realising a coal-fired power plant with emissions comparable with gas-fired units.’

Guy Chardon, senior vice-president of Alstom Power Thermal Products division, added: ‘This new generation of steam turbine generator technology, resulting in high plant efficiency, is key to significantly reducing CO₂ emissions in coal-fired power plants while considerably improving power plant economics.’

The Maasvlakte power plant is expected to begin commercial operation from 2013.