3 ms·
Interestingly, China has been steadily improving in steam. US coal plants average around 33% efficiency, and the latest coal plants in China are close to 50%.
by jcampbell1 4y ago
Interestingly, China has been steadily improving in steam. US coal plants average around 33% efficiency, and the latest coal plants in China are close to 50%. The way electricity price controls work in China if a plant isn’t at 300g per kWh or better, the more you generate the more you lose.
- adgjlsfhk1 4y agoisn't this just that China has newer plants than the US? in the US, no one is building new coal plants (for good reasons)
- Gwypaas 4y agoCoal is fine with steam. Make it supercritical and do fancy stuff. You're simply piping water through furnace with extra steps. It is a material science questions. For all traditional water reactors you are using the water to slow down the neutrons. Enter the Pressurized Water Reactor(PWR). Now the entire reactor is pressurized with all the complications that bring and through Carnot's Theorem you gain some efficiency. This is nuclear's problem with trying to become more efficient.