Electricity generator costs and greenhouse gas emissions

Abstract

The capital costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from various types of electricity power plants will determine the least cost option for achieving our goal of reducing GHG emissions by at least 58% below 1990 levels from the electricity generation sector (as a major part of our goal of reducing all GHG emissions by 80% below 1990 levels by 2050). We show a plausible, economic scenario whereby replacing current fossil fuel based power generators with coal-powered integrated gasification combined cycle plants (IGCC) with carbon capture and storage (CCS) will achieve our GHG reduction targets by 2050.