Largest US public utility switching from coal to gas, despite proposed EPA carbon pollution limits

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By TRAVIS LOLLER

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The nation’s largest public utility released plans Friday to build a new natural gas plant in Tennessee, largely dismissing renewable energy alternatives one day after the Biden administration proposed strict new limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is replacing its coal-burning Kingston Fossil Plant, the site of a massive coal ash spill in 2008.

TVA’s draft environmental impact statement says constructing a 1500-megawatt gas plant along with 3-4 megawatts of solar and 100 megawatts of battery storage at the Kingston site is “the best overall solution to provide low-cost, reliable energy to the TVA power system.”

TVA considered replacing the Kingston plant with 1500 megawatts of solar and 2,200 megawatts of battery storage at various locations around the Tennessee Valley, but nixed solar as less reliable and spent only a few pages on the analysis.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/tva-tennessee-coal-gas-carbon-greenhouse-9650c0254ebdb3a7e38cbf9ca36c21bb

[progree]

1. And, besides the Kingston plant ...

TVA isn’t writing off the possibility of more solar, however. It says the new gas plants will provide the flexibility needed to add 10,000 megawatts of solar to its overall system by 2035 and still meet peak demand periods.

... Kingston is not the only new gas plant the utility has in the works. The Southern Environmental Law Center is suing to block a gas-burning plant at the retired coal-burning Johnsonville Fossil Plant, ....

... Earlier this year, TVA announced a decision to replace its coal-burning Cumberland Fossil Plant with gas, despite concerns raised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the utility’s analysis of alternatives was faulty and that the project is at odds with President Biden’s clean energy goals.

... Biden has called for a carbon-pollution-free energy sector by 2035. That’s a goal TVA has said it can’t achieve without technological breakthroughs in nuclear generation and energy storage. TVA has a goal of 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2035 over 2005 levels and net-zero emissions by 2050.

...

[OldBaldy1701E]

4. Yeah.

That’s a goal TVA has said it can’t achieve without technological breakthroughs in nuclear generation and energy storage.

Breakthroughs that you are just not that interested in helping become a reality, eh? I mean, any improvements in energy production will just make you richer while you continue to raise prices even as your production costs go down. Please. We could have already had individual location energy generation and instead we let the power companies tell us that a centralized grid was the only way. Now, that grid is proving a major vulnerability as well as a major control device. (Think of how vulnerable rural areas are when it comes to consistent power reliability. Now think of what happens when rethugs are able to gain control of said power generation plants or their boards.) Still no 'improvements' though, eh?

[Lasher]

2. This is a big step in the right direction.

From coal to gas, solar, and battery storage.

[hunter]

3. It's too bad we don't have modular factory built nuclear reactors yet.

Those could be a drop-in replacements for fossil fuel power plants.

Gas power plants are better than coal power plants but they won't save the world.

We shouldn't be building any new fossil fuel power plants, even those that support our wind and solar follies.

[madville]

5. Not a fan of solar-related deforestation

They put 60 megawatts of solar here in my town a few years ago, had to level over 400 acres of beautiful forest to do it at that site the utility owned.

About 5 miles down the road from me now a different utility just leveled 600 acres of forest to put in a 74 megawatt solar farm.

1500 megawatts of solar would require somewhere around 8000-10,000 acres of land. That’s a lot of trees and habitat to lose somewhere like Tennessee.

[cstanleytech]

6. Nuclear would actually produce a shit ton more energy for that amount of land and as we have

have seen around Chernobyl an accident can actually benefit the surrounding wildlife far more than it hurts.
Doesn't do shit for the humans except give them cancer if not outright kill them due to radioactive exposure but really helps the wildlife without humans around.

[70sEraVet]

7. I live (very much) near the Cumberland City TVA plant, and the plant seems to be built...

on the outer bank of a natural divergence in the river caused by an island. Seems like it would be a perfect candidate for a Run-of-River hydro-plant, which would not alter the flow of the river or displace people from their homes and farms.
This is an aerial view of the plant's location on the river. The main channel of the river runs through the other side of the island from the plant.


I'm certainly no engineer, but this particular spot in the Cumberland River seems to be calling for a Run-of-River solution.
Here's a Wikipedia link for Run-of-River Hydroelectric plants:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_run-of-the-river_hydroelectric_power_stations#:~:text=Hydroelectric%20power%20stations%20%20%20%20Station%20,%20%20%5B4%5D%20%2017%20more%20rows%20