ENERGY SOURCE REPLACEMENT IN A THERMAL POWER PLANT

Abstract

In Slovenia, approximately one third of electricity is produced in thermal power plants. Electricity prices have risen sharply recently. There are several reasons for this. One of them is the large increase in the price of CO2 coupons that thermal power plants have to buy, since they emit large amounts of greenhouse gas into the environment during the production of electricity. Emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2 are the result of burning fossil fuels, in this case coal. We want to use renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More than half of Slovenia is covered with forest, and as a result, wood biomass energy represents  a great energy potential. One possibility is the use of wood biomass in a classic thermal power plant for the production of electricity. This contribution presents the energy potential of Slovenian forests, before evaluating the replacement of the energy source in the existing coal-based thermal power plant with wood biomass. It has been discovered that there is enough wood biomass in Slovenia, and that all the electricity that is currently produced from coal can be produced from wood biomass. The cost of wood biomass is higher than the cost of coal. By changing the energy source, we save on the purchase of CO2 coupons. Therefore, the use of wood biomass represents an economically justified energy source for the production of electricity.