Not exact matches
DELTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Michigan regulators on Friday cleared DTE Energy's request to build a near - $ 1 billion natural gas power plant, the first approval of such a large facility
for a regulated utility in decades and a move that coincides with the
retirement of
coal - fired plants.
Obama had introduced a raft of regulations intended to slash emissions of carbon dioxide blamed
for climate change, a policy course that accelerated the
retirement of older
coal - fired power plants and bolstered the nascent solar and wind sectors, which depend heavily on weather conditions
for their power output.
One - third of those plants, among the oldest and dirtiest in the United States, were to be shuttered by the end of 2012, making it the biggest year
for coal plant
retirements in the nation's history.
Among Freeman's specific recommendations are a «20 percent federal tax credit to electricity and natural gas utilities that gives highest priority to the efficient use of the energy they supply,» and ban on new
coal or nuclear plants and
retirement of the existing plants within the next 30 years, government - funded demonstration plants
for Big Solar and hydrogen, increasing federal fuel economy standards one mile - per - gallon a year over the next 24 years, tax credits
for plug - in hybrids or flex - fuel vehicles, and an excess - profits tax on oil to fund the tax credits.
Washington State and Oregon have two of the cleanest energy mixes in the nation, with one
coal plant each, both of which are scheduled
for retirement in the next decade.
Doing so provides important context
for recent
coal plant
retirement announcements, particularly given that some companies have attributed
retirements to EPA rules that are still years away from going into force.
The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), echoing trade groups that lobby
for other fuel sources including
coal and gas, has said that a key factor
for several premature
retirements is the failure of RTO markets to value attributes of nuclear power.
This includes support
for policies that: (1) require the installation and operation of state - of - the - art air pollution control technologies and (2) encourage conversion to cleaner energy resources and / or permanent
retirement of
coal - fired power plants.
The American Coalition
for Clean
Coal Electricity, a sector trade group, reinforced the call for swift action, filing a study it commissionedy that claims the PJM market will «lose its resilience to gas outages if coal retirements continue.&ra
Coal Electricity, a sector trade group, reinforced the call
for swift action, filing a study it commissionedy that claims the PJM market will «lose its resilience to gas outages if
coal retirements continue.&ra
coal retirements continue.»
The bill would also provide monthly payments to low - and middle - income households and fund job training, early
retirement and health care benefits
for coal workers.
According to People's World, «Patriot
Coal now wants to be released from its pension and
retirement obligations covering more than 20,000 UMWA retirees and beneficiaries in West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio» [12](see below
for more).
Utilities nationwide have set
retirements for 266
coal power plants since 2010 as residents reject paying the personal health costs and the expensive electricity rates needed to keep old
coal plants running.
Some
coal plants applied
for and received one - year extensions, meaning that many of the
coal retirements expected in 2016 will likely also occur in April.
The EPA regulations call
for increasing the use of state - of - the - art, natural gas - fired power plants in place of
coal plants; increasing renewable energy sources; avoiding
retirement of existing nuclear plants; and supporting energy efficiency.
By creating a demand
for this supposedly dispatchable power, the policy discourages the
retirement of the very
coal units that AEMO has identified as ill - suited to our needs.
E3G's scorecard looks at the progress made on phasing out
coal since the Paris climate conference and shows that an additional 40GW of existing
coal plants have been marked
for retirement over the coming years.
To date, more than a third of the nation's on - campus
coal plants have been retired or are slated
for retirement — including recent announcements from University of Cincinnati and Wooster College.
This allows a graceful glide path to
retirement for coal - fired power stations and their work forces while cleaner energy sources ramp up.
Victoria also can play a major role as a financial innovator in finding an economically sustainable glide path to
retirement for aging
coal - fired power.
I helped lead a protest outside Duke headquarters a few weeks ago, and last week activists rallied at Duke's annual shareholder meeting, calling
for the
retirement of the Asheville plant and the cleanup of not only the Dan River spill, but all of Duke's
coal ash sites in the state.
Synapse developed the
Coal Asset Valuation Tool (CAVT), a spreadsheet - based database and model, to identify and investigate U.S. coal units at risk for retirem
Coal Asset Valuation Tool (CAVT), a spreadsheet - based database and model, to identify and investigate U.S.
coal units at risk for retirem
coal units at risk
for retirement.
But $ 20 million of that will go to workers discharged from
coal mines, $ 25 million to the Appalachian communities effected, $ 6 million to economically distressed communities, and roughly $ 5 million
for «brownfield» studies in communities affected by the
retirement of
coal - fired plants.
Environmental regulatory requirements may have been the straw that broke a baseload's camel's back — particularly
for coal plants — but it appears that most baseload plants were already burdened by the effects of low natural gas prices, eroding customer demand, and lower capacity factors before the incremental burden of new regulations tipped the balance over to
retirement.»
In addition, CoalSwarm provides sortable tracking tables
for proposed
coal plants in the United States,
coal plant
retirements in the United States, and proposed
coal plants in India.
Figure 1 compares the future economics of
coal units that are slated
for retirement and
coal units that are currently not announced to retire.
The Nevada utility has requested approval from the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada
for a 100 MW solar plant, while simultaneously requesting the early
retirement of a
coal - fired generation facility, but its previous objection to net metering lingers in the memory.
Given that deeper CO2 reductions would likely beget more
coal plant
retirements, necessitating more buildout of new infrastructure, the NERC report seems to show that more ambitious carbon cuts could be unworkable
for the grid.
But just how much renewables, nuclear, and gas will mix to make up
for the coming
coal retirements will depend on a number of variables, including economic factors and whether the CPP goals are extended to 2040.
Back in April, DOE Secretary Perry issued a memo calling
for a reliability study of U.S. power systems, expressing concerns that competitive markets, renewables, and regulations were forcing
retirement of baseload (i.e.
coal and nuclear) power plants critical to reliability.
Utilities with exposure to
coal power in the EU are at a strategic crossroads: continue to invest in
coal and hope governments will allow rent - seeking in the form of capacity and
retirement payments, or divest and prepare
for a low carbon future.
The report pulls no punches when it comes to
coal, including a call
for a global
coal phaseout involving an immediate end to investments in new unabated
coal - fired power plants globally and the
retirement of existing unabated
coal - fired power plants in high income countries.
that in 2010, «Construction did not begin on a single new
coal - fired power plant in the United States
for the second straight year,» with plans
for 38 new plants dropped and even more older plants scheduled
for retirement.
CAVT is used in several Synapse analyses to identify and investigate
coal units at risk for retirement, including two studies led by Mr. Knight for the Energy Foundation: Displacing Coal: An Analysis of Natural Gas Potential in the 2012 Electric System Dispatch (August 2013), and Forecasting Coal Unit Competitiveness: Coal Retirement Assessment Using Synapse's Coal Asset Valuation Tool (October 20
coal units at risk
for retirement, including two studies led by Mr. Knight
for the Energy Foundation: Displacing
Coal: An Analysis of Natural Gas Potential in the 2012 Electric System Dispatch (August 2013), and Forecasting Coal Unit Competitiveness: Coal Retirement Assessment Using Synapse's Coal Asset Valuation Tool (October 20
Coal: An Analysis of Natural Gas Potential in the 2012 Electric System Dispatch (August 2013), and Forecasting
Coal Unit Competitiveness: Coal Retirement Assessment Using Synapse's Coal Asset Valuation Tool (October 20
Coal Unit Competitiveness:
Coal Retirement Assessment Using Synapse's Coal Asset Valuation Tool (October 20
Coal Retirement Assessment Using Synapse's
Coal Asset Valuation Tool (October 20
Coal Asset Valuation Tool (October 2013).
Since this analysis, power producers have announced the closure of 70
coal - fired generators, including 58 identified in the report as ripe -
for -
retirement, leaving 295 generators remaining on the ripe -
for -
retirement list.
A longer - term scenario in the study analyses the implications of limiting global averages temperature increases to 2 ˚C, confirming the need
for China to start planning the early
retirement of
coal plants not retrofitted with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
More renewable energy could lessen the fuel security risk, the study noted, but would also force
coal and oil - fired generation
retirements, boosting the need
for liquified natural gas imports.
From the Daily Caller:
Coal - fired power plants kept the lights on
for millions of Americans during January's bomb cyclone, according to an Energy Department report warning future plant
retirements could imperil grid security.
In these projections, 90 % of the
coal - fired capacity
retirements occur by 2016, coinciding with the first year of enforcement
for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.
The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) forthcoming climate change regulations
for new and existing electricity generating units have been appropriately labeled the «war on
coal,» [1] because the proposed limits
for carbon dioxide emissions would essentially prohibit the construction of new
coal - fired power plants and force existing ones into early
retirement.
Preparing
for the
retirement of a large
coal plant contains the same challenges as preparing
for the addition of a new large generating resource.
SALEM, Ore., March 24, 2014 — The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently reported that nine more
coal - fired electric power plants have been scheduled
for retirement.
EIA has revised its forecast
for coal - fired plant
retirements upward twice since November.
The stampede of new
coal plant
retirements speaks
for itself.
In a Friday memo, Perry asked his chief of staff to undertake a 60 day inquiry into «the extent to which continued regulatory burdens, as well as mandates and tax and subsidy policies, are responsible
for forcing the premature
retirement of baseload power plants,» such as those fueled by
coal or nuclear energy, among other grid related questions.
Think about that
for a moment: Once you take
retirements into account, as you should, we got more new solar last year than new
coal + new gas + new nuclear.
For coal miners nearing
retirement age, a transition plan could make support payments available until they are eligible to receive their pensions.
The 2007 agreement had required AEP to install flue gas desulfurization (FGD) technology at the plant — a more expensive technology that results in greater pollution reductions — but Sierra Club and the other parties agreed to the DSI technology in return
for an earlier installation date, the other
coal plant
retirements, and clean energy investments.
While many other estimates exist
for the number of
coal plants at risk of
retirement as they become financially unviable or reach the end of their expected lifespan, the majority fail to account
for many of the costs of environmental compliance and
for a long - term carbon emission price.
In an analysis
for the Energy Information Administration, Laura Martin and Jeffrey Jones project that
coal plant
retirements during 2015 — 20 as a result of CPP actions may reach 61.6 GW (of a total of 326 GW in operation in 2014), with 30.4 GW in the 2020s and 7.5 GW in the 2030s.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), whose mission is to ensure the reliability of the bulk power system
for the continent, finds in its 2017 Long - Term Reliability Assessment, that (contrary to NETL raising potential reliability issues from future
coal and nuclear
retirements) most regions of the country have sufficient reserve margins through 2022, as new additions more than offset expected
retirements.