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Supreme Court Decision Unlikely to Stall the Shift Away from Coal Plants
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/538896/supreme-court-decision-unlikely-to-stall-the-shift-away-from-coal-plants/[font face=Serif][font size=5]Supreme Court Decision Unlikely to Stall the Shift Away from Coal Plants[/font]
[font size=4]As market forces chip away at the coal industry, many plants are being repurposed as data centers, museums, and mixed-use neighborhoods.[/font]
By Richard Martin on June 29, 2015
[font size=3]Despite the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision today to invalidate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan to restrict mercury and other pollutants from existing power plants, the retirement of aging coal plants continues to accelerate. According to a recent report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, we are entering “the largest wave of coal retirements in U.S. history,” with 23 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity expected to close this year alone and a total of 50 gigawatts by 2020.
Federal regulation aside, the decline of coal-fired power is being driven by market forces: more than 90 percent of these plants are older than 20 years; many are much older. The shale gas revolution has made burning natural gas, which is a far cleaner source of heat for electricity than coal, at least as economical as coal in many cases. Even if the federal government doesn’t force utilities to move away from coal, the market, and public pressure from ratepayers, is driving them toward cleaner sources of energy.
…
Coal plants tend to be dirty, located in out-of-the-way spots (nobody wants to live next to a coal-fired power plant), and full of derelict machinery that must be hauled off. The disused buildings must be razed. On the other hand, they’re by definition well-served by the power grid, often located on river banks, and tend to be in regions eager for new economic development.
All of those apply to Widows Creek, in northern Alabama, a coal plant owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority that was shut down as part of the TVA’s sweeping 2011 clean-air agreement with the EPA and environmental organizations. This week Google announced it will turn the former coal plant into a data center powered by 100 percent renewable energy. If all works out, this could turn into a rare unalloyed victory in the transition away from fossil fuels: Google gets a ready-zoned brownfield site with ample existing infrastructure; the surrounding communities get a new economic boost; the climate gets a reduction of millions of tons of greenhouse gases every year.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]As market forces chip away at the coal industry, many plants are being repurposed as data centers, museums, and mixed-use neighborhoods.[/font]
By Richard Martin on June 29, 2015
[font size=3]Despite the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision today to invalidate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan to restrict mercury and other pollutants from existing power plants, the retirement of aging coal plants continues to accelerate. According to a recent report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, we are entering “the largest wave of coal retirements in U.S. history,” with 23 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity expected to close this year alone and a total of 50 gigawatts by 2020.
Federal regulation aside, the decline of coal-fired power is being driven by market forces: more than 90 percent of these plants are older than 20 years; many are much older. The shale gas revolution has made burning natural gas, which is a far cleaner source of heat for electricity than coal, at least as economical as coal in many cases. Even if the federal government doesn’t force utilities to move away from coal, the market, and public pressure from ratepayers, is driving them toward cleaner sources of energy.
…
Coal plants tend to be dirty, located in out-of-the-way spots (nobody wants to live next to a coal-fired power plant), and full of derelict machinery that must be hauled off. The disused buildings must be razed. On the other hand, they’re by definition well-served by the power grid, often located on river banks, and tend to be in regions eager for new economic development.
All of those apply to Widows Creek, in northern Alabama, a coal plant owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority that was shut down as part of the TVA’s sweeping 2011 clean-air agreement with the EPA and environmental organizations. This week Google announced it will turn the former coal plant into a data center powered by 100 percent renewable energy. If all works out, this could turn into a rare unalloyed victory in the transition away from fossil fuels: Google gets a ready-zoned brownfield site with ample existing infrastructure; the surrounding communities get a new economic boost; the climate gets a reduction of millions of tons of greenhouse gases every year.
…[/font][/font]
