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

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.