Are Non-Nuclear Floating Power Plants an Option for South Africa?
01/16/2009 By Keith CampbellEngineering News, February 15, 2008 While Russia could, in a few years, lease floating nuclear power plants to this country to help alleviate the current electricity generation shortfall (see Engineering News February 1, 2008), South Africa could boost its power production even more rapidly by using non-nuclear floating power plants (FPPs). There are reported to be more than 50 FPPs in use around the world. The biggest is a 220-MW unit at Mangalore in south-west India. Built in South Korea, it is moored in a lagoon, and its design allows this FPP to rise vertically by about 5 m to cope with the dramatic increase in the water level during the monsoon season. And a 520-MW FPP is planned for New York City, which has no affordable land available for a new power station, but plenty of water on which to float one. An FPP is basically a power station mounted on a barge, and FPPs are generally constructed by shipbuilders. Interestingly, from a South African perspect
