Coal Fired Power Generation Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The power generated by coal amounted at 10100.5 Terawatt-Hours (TWh), in 2018, globally, and is expected to grow at a CAGR below 2% during 2020-2025. The coal fired power generation market is expected to grow at a higher rate in the developing countries and is expected to decline in developed nations, owing to the global emission control. The rapidly growing power demand from the developing nations due to large scale urbanization and industrialization has been driving the demand for the coal fired power generation market. However, stringent rules and regulations over greenhouse gas emissions are anticipated to restrain the coal fired power generation market growth in the coming years.

Key Highlights

• Pulverized coal firing technology is expected to have the maximum share in the coal fired power generation market, in 2018, with nearly half of the market share, followed by cyclone furnace technology.
• The increasing urbanization and industrialization in developing economies of Asia-Pacific and South America, globally is expected to act as an opportunity for coal fired power generation market.
• Asia-Pacific is estimated to have the maximum share of the coal fired power generation market, in 2018. Additionally, the growth rate of the Asia-Pacific region is expected to be the highest during the forecast period, primarily due to the rapidly developing economies, such as China and India, and the faster growing demand for electricity in the region, over the forecast period.

Key Market Trends

Pulverized Coal Firing Technology to Dominate the Market

• The global coal fired power generation reached 10100 TWh in 2018, representing an increased of approximately 3% over the previous year. Majority of this power generation came from pulverized coal in 2018. Pulverized coal firing technology for the power plants is a well proven technology for power generation from coal. The coal is ground (pulverised) into a fine power to sizes less than 100 μm and is fed with primary combustion air into a boiler through burners where it is burnt to release heat energy in the furnace. It is the most developed and proven technology for large utility boilers and offers the greatest reliability and efficiency of all boiler configurations.
• By pulverizing the coal, the surface area for combustion increases much hence thermal efficiency increases. It results in faster combustion rate and consequently reduces the requirement of secondary air to complete combustion. The burden of the air intake fans also reduces.
• Faster combustion rate makes the system more responsive to the changing load as the combustion can easily and quickly be controlled.
• Further, another essential feature of the pulverized firing system is that it does not have any moving parts inside the combustion chamber which gives it long trouble free life. Also, the ash handling is more straightforward in this system.
• However, the high initial and running cost has been acting as the restraints for growth of the pulverized coal firing technology.
• Countries, such as India, with the reserves of low calorific value coal such as lignite uses this technology for power generation from coal, as it reduces the combustion time and efficiency of the plant.
• Major coal fired power plants such as Anpara Thermal Power Station - India, Jharsuguda TPP - India, Jiaxin Power Station - China, etc. uses pulverized coal firing technology for power generation.
• Hence, the pulverized coal firing technology is expected to dominate the coal fired power generation market over the study period.

Asia-Pacific to Dominate the Market

• Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the market for coal fired power generation and also to grow at the fastest rate over the forecast period.
• The power consumption has been growing at a significant rate in the region driven by industrialization, population growth, and growing urbanization, particularly in emerging countries, such as India and China.
• In China, in 2018, the power generated from coal accounted to 4,732 TWh, up from the previous year’s 4,445 TWh. Coal power generation holds 66% share in China’s overall energy mix.
• In China and India, which have accounted for 85% of new coal power capacity since 2005, the number of permits for new coal plants dropped to record lows, but new plants are still in the pipeline.
• Therefore, increasing power needs in the region are expected to increase the demand for coal fired power generation market over the forecast period in Asia-Pacific region.

Competitive Landscape

The coal fired power generation market is partially consolidated, due to the small number of companies operating in the industry. The key players in this market include National Thermal Power Corporation Limited, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., STEAG GmbH, Dominion Energy Solutions and China Huaneng Group amongst others.

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• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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