E.ON AG, Centrica Plc and other European utilities plan to start at least 19 new gas-fired power plants this quarter from Greece to Ireland, potentially cutting power and emissions prices and boosting demand for gas.
Electricity producers plan to add 9,364 megawatts of gas-fired capacity in the three months through December, compared with five facilities, or 1,300 megawatts, this year through August, data from energy information provider Platts, a division of McGraw-Hill, showed.
A 1,000-megawatt plant can supply about 2 million average European homes. Generators favor natural gas plants because they are cheaper to build and emit about half the carbon dioxide of coal plants, the most commonly used fossil fuel in power generation.
European Union consumption of natural gas may increase 1 percent next year as the economy strengthens after an expected 7 percent decline this year, lobby group Eurogas said yesterday.
(ΚΑΤΗΙΜΕRINI, 03-04/10/2009)