The photo is sourced from Powermag
All the other countries having launched new gas-fired generation capacities may be grouped into three major categories. The first one includes the countries of the Middle East and Northern Africa rich with hydrocarbons: e.g., Bahrein commissioned 1.5 GW gas-fired CHPPs, Iraq – 1.9 GW, Algeria – 1.9 GW, and Libya – 0.5 GW. According to BP’s Global Energy Review, these four countries account for almost 10% of the proved global natural gas reserves and for 3% of gas production. High accessibility of feedstock makes launching new generation capacities easier.
The second category includes most of the developing countries of South and East Asia, which continue to demonstrate the growing demand for gas in energy generation sector. Bangladesh commissioned 1.2 GW gas-fired CHPPs, and Pakistan and Thailand – 1.3 GW each. Growth of the demand in the first two countries is underpinned by rampant economic upturn against the background of the demographic boom. The GDP growth in Bangladesh in 2021 and 2022 made 5.5% and 7.3% respectively, and in Pakistan – 5.7% and 6%. The population of both countries during the period from 2011 to 2021 cumulatively grew by 15% (52 mln persons). As for Thailand, the main factor here was gradual replacement of coal in electricity generation: between 2019 and 2022 the country decommissioned three coal-fired generation units with total capacity 0.5 GW, which required launching new generation facilities.
Finally, the third category includes OECD countries, where launching new gas-fired CHPPs allows for decreasing the carbon footprint. In 2022, the USA commissioned 2.5 W gas-fired CHPPs, South Korea – 1 GW, Germany – 0.8 GW, Italy and Japan – 0.5 GW and 0.2 GW respectively. These metrics reflect a longer trend demonstrating the positive balance of launching gas-fired capacities in OECD countries, and negative balance of launching coal-fired capacities. For example, during the period from 2011 to 2021, the gas-fired capacities in the USA grew by 84 GW, while as coal-fired capacities decreased by 115 GW, according to Ember Research Centre data.
Overall, the 2022 results demonstrated that China remained the global locomotive of the demand for gas in electricity generation. The country also maintains the leadership in other generation segment: in 2022, the PRC accounted for 24% of global growth of nuclear power plants’ capacities (3.4 GW out of total 14.1 GW) and for 59% of growth of coal-fired CHPPs (26.8 GW out of total 45.5 GW).
