When did we stop? It is a rather significant part of our power supply for many years.
Posted on 04/11/2015 9:59:23 AM PDT by thackney
Ohio's energy mix is about to change, the Cleveland Plain Dealer points out, with six gas-fired plants on the drawing board and older coal-fired generation set to retire.
The accelerated retirement of many coal plants is a nationwide trend, driven by low natural gas prices and EPA pollution regulations. About 60,000 MW of coal fired generators are expected to be offline by 2020, according to the EIA, due largely to the EPA's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), and, once it is finalized, the carbon regulations under the Clean Power Plan.
The state is also wrestling with energy efficiency standards, having frozen its programs until 2017. Analysis from Pew Charitable Trusts, however, has indicated the move could be costing the state millions of dollars.
Dive Insight: Ohio's portfolio of energy sources is about to undergo a dramatic shift. The state has no less than a half dozen gas-fired proposals under consideration, at the same time new carbon regulations are about to take older coal-fired facilities offline.
The most recent generation proposal, The Plain Dealer reports, is Swiss-owned Advanced Power's plan to construct a 750-MW facility in Carroll County. According to the newspaper, more than 4,000 MW of gas-fired facilities are expected online in the next four years.
The Carroll County Energy facility is under construction and could create about 500 construction jobs. The facility is expected online in late 2017.
Simultaneously, Ohio legislators are considering whether or not to reboot the state's energy efficiency measures. The state froze the measures through 2016, but Pew research earlier this year showed that between 2009 and 2013 Ohio attracted $1.3 billion in private clean energy investment — with more than $3 billion expected in the next decade.
Coal retirements, at this stage, are largely being driven by low natural gas prices and the EPA's MATS rule, since the carbon regulations under the Clean Power Plan have yet to be finalized. The Supreme Court in March heard a challenge to the MATS rule brought by a group of states and industry groups, and appeared sharply divided after hearing the case. The EPA has indicated that the Clean Power Plan will be finalized in "mid-summer"
When did we stop? It is a rather significant part of our power supply for many years.
Can you PROVE to me that natural gas fired generating plants will result in cheaper electrical cost to the consumer than the existing coal plants? If not then this argument is moot.
Can you PROVE to me that natural gas fired generating plants will result in cheaper electrical cost to the consumer than the existing coal plants? If not then this argument is moot.
Can you prove the opposite? And not just this year, but for the next 20? Include operation and maintenance of a 60 year old coal plant to 20 year old gas turbin.
Right now Thack, not 20 years from now and not with the EIA “adjusted” numbers for plants completed and put online in 2019.
Fact, current coal plants are SELLING wholesale electricity for sub 3 cents/kwh and making a profit. Granted they are not the cleanest but they do not rise to the murder machines the green weenies make them out to be.
The only other system that competes cost wise is hydro and the greenies want them all shut down.
Coal can be gasified but this extra step lowers the end-total energy content from ground to end use. Does create another bolt-on parasitic industry that I’m sure certain liberals have investments in.
When you have to replace a power plant, the natural gas power plant is the cheapest generation available.
We need power past just today. We need it for the next 20 years and beyond.
Total system Levelized Cost of Electricity
Conventional Coal 95.6 $/MWh
Natural Gas-fired, Conventional Combined Cycle 66.3 $/MWh
http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm
They should gasify the coal right where it is and then transport the resultant gas and liquid products from those plants via ground transport and pipelines.
That would create more jobs near the coal mines, and help those local economies.
Brought to you by the same folks that publish the monthly job reports.
That is the problem Thack, all the coal plants Oslimeball is shutting down do not need to be and they have decades of productive life left in them at 3 cents per kwh.
Your logic is like buying a new car just because the tires need replacing.
What cost comparison data do you have to share?
A Nat Gas plant is a far simplier operation than a coal plant. And Nat Gas has become quite cheap.
“I have friends in Carroll County, Ohio. Lots of drilling and fracking going on. The economy of the whole area is booming.”
I live there and I’m still broke.
Let me see support for that number for an older, less-efficient Ohio coal plant; One where the heat rate is ~11,000/kWH.
Sorry, Nancy Pelosi said that Natural Gas IS NOT a Fossil Fuel, therefore it cannot be considered a Greenhouse Gas.
I hear she is almost as smart as Hillary and that State Department Spokeswoman.
I looked it up, actually, West Virginia. That was pretty much the average costs. If I was an electricity provider that is what I could buy the power from on the open market then flip it for about 10-12 cents. Of course, I could buy windymill power for 25 cents/kwh and sell it for 13 cents, but I could make that up on volume. haha
No, but Nazi Pelosi IS a fossil.
The coal plant closings I’ve found for Ohio so far were built in the 50s and 60s. These are not average plants, these are old, near end of life plants.
They are not shutting them all down. They are shutting down the old ones that cost more to run and cost to much to reduce the mercury in the exhaust.
Natural gas, when burned, gives off dihydrogen monoxide. If you inhale only a few lungfuls of that stuff you will die. And what about the entire approach to the energy problem being homophobic and hostile to all transgenders, cisgenders, intergenders, crossgenders, nullgenders, genderf***s, paragenders and orthogenders? (OK, I made those last two up, but the others are on Facebook so they must be real.)
That is an excellent point.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.