Selection environments, flexibility and the success of the gas turbine

This paper explains the success and failure of two technologies for electricity generation. 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 15 years, the fluidised bed has struggled to attract attention outside a small-scale niche. The paper examines economic, institutional and political changes in the selection environment for power plant technologies to explain this success and failure. It demonstrates how the technological flexibility of the CCGT allowed it to benefit from different selection environments to become the electricity industry's current technology of choice.