They can offer higher total efficiencies, but that comes at the cost of a lower electricity production. A Rankine cycle plant can for instance offer a total efficiency of 90-110% (the latter is with flue gas condensation), but only 20-30% is electricity and usually you need more electricity than heat. Naturally, you would need large central heating distribution networks to use such plants, so the investment needed is so much larger than just the power plant.richard_leeds wrote:I'm thinking of CHP plants where waste heat is recovered for domestic of industrial uses. Don't they get higher efficiencies?Edis wrote: All powerplants that convert heat to power have an efficiency of 60% (state of the art combined cycle gas turbines) or less.
Gas turbines can offer higher electric efficiencies, but they are more limited in terms of fuel compared to the Rankine cycle. Using solid fuels with gasification is possible but comes at a cost.
