Coal-fired Power Was the Big Loser in the Economic Downturn‏

[DaveD]

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com...conomic-downturn?cmpid=WNL-Friday-June18-2010

In 2008, total U.S. power generation was 4.1 million GWh. In 2009, that fell by 4 percent, to 3.9 million. That's a 4 percent reduction -- clearly the result of the economic slowdown. Nothing surprising there.

What's interesting, though, is how generation shifted by fuel type. Over the same year, coal-fired power generation fell by 11 percent, from almost 2 million GWh to just under 1.8 million.

 

[DaveD]

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/seva_maillist/message/15298

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the annual West Coast Energy Management Congress, where the CEO of Puget Sound Energy stood before several hundred energy engineers and said "we have more power than we know what to do with", that "nothing was burning last night" and "our marginal cost of electricity is negative" thanks to PSE's wind farms (Tuesday night was windy in the east, with over 500 megawatts produced from the farms all night long, and when morning came, their geographic distribution meant that Hopkins Ridge spun up as Wild Horse slowed down)

 

[Palpatine]

I would love it if they would shut down the single coal plant still operating in the state of Washington.

Puget Sound Energy just started construction on another wind farm in Washington that will produce 343 MW of energy in phase 1.

Lower Snake River Wind Project
http://www.pse.com/energyEnvironmen...gySupply_ElectricityWind.aspx?tab=4&chapter=1

The Lower Snake River Wind Project is Puget Sound Energy’s newest wind energy facility in Washington’s Columbia and Garfield counties. The project builds on the success of PSE’s Hopkins Ridge Wind Facility, located in Columbia County, and the contribution it makes to the local economy and renewable energy. Initial development was conducted under a partnership between PSE and RES Americas, Inc., with PSE becoming the project’s sole owner in August 2009. RES Americas will remain a project team member, serving as construction contractor.

The project is designed to be built in phases. PSE began construction on Phase I in Garfield County in spring of 2010. The 343-megawatt (MW) Phase I project near Pomeroy, Wash. will significantly increase PSE’s total wind-power generating capacity, with 149 wind turbines, rated at 2.3 MW each. Phase I is expected to provide clean power for more than 100,000 homes and to be operational in 2012.

Also BPA just received $2 billion in funding to improve the transmission grid in the Pacific Northwest to better handle all of the wind power that is coming online and to better balance the transmission of power between all of the hydro dams.
That is the key to wind power in the pacific northwest. They need to be able to use the dams effectively as backup to balance the grid.

 

[rolosrevenge]

The only problem with all of the lower Snake River wind is that it is currently balanced by the fast acting lower Snake River dams, which some groups are seriously lobbying to remove. If they get their wish, you can expect the coal plant to be necessary for awhile.