The GT36 will be installed and will come into operation only in the spring of 2022 at the power plant in Marghera Levante (VE), clearly owned by the customer. It is a plant that at present is able to generate 766 MW through the realization of two thermodynamic cycles in series called "combined cycles" that allow to increase the efficiency of the plant but with a significant complexity in the management of the same.
This plant, together with the GT36, is the protagonist in a renovation project by Edison that aims to increase efficiency from 55 to 63 percentage points by the above deadline. Together with this energy efficiency improvement, there will also be a significant decrease in greenhouse gases such as COx and nitrogen NOx by 40% and 70% respectively, thanks to innovations made to the annular burners. The installed capacity of the plant will remain about the same, increasing to 780 MW. With these numbers, the Marghera Levante plant will officially be the most efficient plant in Europe.
Of this total energy power produced, the "Mont Blanc" will take care of almost all of it, having been designed for a nominal power value of 538MW, the equivalent of 500,000 apartments powered by this single turbine. It is also important to emphasize the wide range of turn-down of this turbine that, together with the flexibility of the fuel used, allows to "follow" the energy demand during the 24h without major complications.
The engineering technique behind this giant of half a million kilograms does not even need to be treated in detail to be fully understood, it is limited in fact to give a number of data sufficient to realize what are the conditions under which the turbine will operate, from 1500 ° C temperature for the gas input to 15 stages (rotor-stator) of the compressor, with pressures of the same gas crossing between 25 and 33 bar (to have a tangible reference, the same pressure that is measured at a depth of about 310 meters from the free surface of the sea).
Therefore, since this is a production method that involves combustion, it is certainly not possible to speak of a renewable energy source, a conclusion that could also be drawn just by looking at the energy capacity that is definitely not associated with any power plant from renewable sources taken individually.
The current energy demand is so high (in relation to technologies for the production of renewable energy) that we are not yet allowed to completely do without what can be defined as "dirty" energy sources, i.e. sources that are based on a combustion process. In spite of this, the intense research that has led to this extraordinary result confirms once again the commitment that from all points of view and in every productive sector is being dedicated in recent years to the search for an increasingly eco-sustainable reality.
Written by Lorenzo Campioni of the VGen Engineering Hub
