Constructing Success in the Electric Power Industry: Flexibility and the Gas Turbine

Jim Watson ()
Additional contact information
Jim Watson: SPRU, University of Sussex, http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/

No 64, SPRU Working Paper Series from SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: This paper explains the success and failure of two technologies that generate electricity from fossil fuels. Both the Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) and fluidised bed boiler burn fossil fuels more cleanly than more traditional technologies. Whereas the CCGT has been used for an increasing number of new power plants during the past fifteen years, the latter has struggled to attract attention outside a small-scale niche. The paper draws on economic and social constructivist approaches to technical change. It shows how a combination of economic, institutional and political factors can be used to explain success and failure. It also demonstrates the importance of technological flexibility for the long term development of the CCGT and its acceptance as the power industry's current technology of choice.

Keywords: technical change; flexibility; CCGT; fluidised bed boiler (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L95 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2001-02-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/spru/publications/imprint/sewps/sewp64/sewp64.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sru:ssewps:64

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SPRU Working Paper Series from SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by University of Sussex Business School Communications Team ().