Opportunities to Improve the Efficiency of Existing Coal‐fired Power Plants: Workshop Report

This report presents findings from the U.S. National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) industry workshop held in July 2009. The report explores opportunities to improve the thermal efficiency of existing and future coal‐fired power plants and analyzes technical and non‐technical issues affecting plant efficiency to determine how they can be addressed. Workshop participants recommended ways to enhance NETL data analysis, identified barriers to achieving higher efficiency in coal‐fired power plants, identified solutions to overcome these barriers, outlined the respective roles of stakeholders in implementing the solutions, and identified the most important technical improvements that could be implemented.