Oh look, Killer Wind cozying up to Killer Coal:
Low Cost Wind Energy Could Breathe New Life Into Coal Power Plants
March 9th, 2015 by Tina Casey
Under what possible scenario could low-cost wind energy become coal’s new best friend? Here’s how. The proposed new Clean Power Plan from the US Environmental Protection Agency was supposed to sound the death knell for coal power in the US, resulting in higher costs for consumers and businesses as power companies scramble to replace coal. However, a new report suggests that integrating more wind energy could result in lower overall costs and emissions, while enabling more coal power plants to remain in operation.
The new report was released last week by PJM, which happens to be the largest regional transmission operator in the US. The grid operators that network into PJM straddle coal and natural gas regions in Appalachia as well as the wind-rich Great Lakes states and solar-friendly New Jersey, giving it a front-row seat to the cost interplay between fossil fuels and renewables under the propose Clean Power Plan.
..........
Given all these factors, under the right scenario, you could come out with an energy landscape that balances high-emission coal with near-zero-emission wind, resulting in overall lower emissions and lower costs than you would get from integrating more natural gas into the grid.
..........
For those of you on the go, the American Wind Energy Association blog Into the Wind has a detailed summary, and for those of you really on the go, we gleaned a few snippets from PJM’s fact sheet.
Buried near the end of the fact sheet is the observation that a fair number of coal-fired power plants in PJM’s territory have been slated for near-term retirement even without Clean Power Plan implementation. That’s a good reminder that, like every other major industrial facility, coal power plants have a “natural” lifespan. Sooner or later, they will have to be replaced or upgraded.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the report is necessarily based on a lot of factors that are subject to change. The wind-to-replace-gas scenario is just one of 17 under consideration, and PJM analyzed each of them at three different points in a 10-year Clean Power Plan compliance schedule.
For example, there is also a worst-case scenario in which the supply of renewable energy falls far short of expectations, while natural gas prices rise and PJM’s grid operators lose half of their nuclear capability. Ouch!
On a brighter note, take a look at proposed renewable energy projects within PJM’s territory in the map below, and you can see cause for optimism. Note the east-west breakdown between wind (pink dots) and solar (yellow dots) — that’s not even taking into account the full force of offshore wind energy resources on the Atlantic coast:
.........
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/03/09/low-cost-wind-energy-breathe-new-life-coal-power-plants/
Yep, wind industry cozying up to coal.
http://aweablog.org/blog/post/largest-us-grid-operator-finds-wind-energy-saves-consumers-money-under-epas-clean-power-plan |
