Natural Gas Providing Electricity

The choice for most plants providing electricity in the United States during the 1970’s and 1980’s were coal or nuclear powered. Though coal is the cheapest fossil fuel used to produce electricity, it is also the dirtiest, producing the highest levels of harmful particulate into the air, causing far reaching environmental damage, not to mention the adverse affects on respiratory health. Historically, U.S. electricity generation has been one of the most polluting industries. Thankfully, governmental emission regulations have forced the cleanup of a large amount of these coal-fired plants, and many have turned to cleaner options to help provide Americans with the electricity they need. There has been a slow rise since the early nineties, a shift to the use of natural gas to fire power plants.

Natural gas is used in the most basic way, similarly to coal, burned in order to heat water with the resulting steam funneled into a turbine, turning it, and producing electricity. The unfortunate reality of this tried and true way is its overwhelming inefficiency in comparison to newly emerging methods. Another way gas is used is simply as fuel to engines that turn the turbines, but this is only slightly more efficient than the steam producing method. Newer natural gas fired power plants are using both methods in “combined-cycle” units, harnessing the most successful attributes of both methods, combining them into one unit, and nearly doubling the thermal efficiency in the process. This allows for less of the natural gas produced heat energy to be lost, with numbers dwindling to nearly 30% lost rather than 70% in those methods when used alone.

An exciting innovation motivated by the increasing usage of clean burning natural gas is the development of smaller power plants that can be erected locally rather than the traditionally, large, centrally located power plants that have dominated the United States in the last century. This trend is known as distributed generation, and has allowed municipalities, independent factories, and even residential areas the ability to generate their own electricity, ensuring that their individual needs are met. Most all of these smaller plants are powered by the nation’s extensive natural gas infrastructure that grows each year as natural gas distributors like Triple Diamond Energy Corp expand operations to keep up with the ever- rowing demand for clean burning, highly efficient, and readily available natural gas. New supplies are needed, and American companies are hard at work, using all their available resources to discover them.

About the Author: Robert Jent is the president of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.