USA-“State-by-state, renewables are taking over”

Across America, coal plants are closing. They’re being replaced by natural gas and – increasingly – renewables. It’s all being driven by some demanding goals from state governments.  

New York is shooting for 24% renewables by 2020; California for 33%. Maine is the most ambitious, at no less than 40% – most of which will come from wind.  Thirty-five states in all have now set these ‘renewable portfolio’ standards.

Texas in particular is thinking really big. If you add up all the wind plants currently under construction or in development in the state, the total comes to around 50,000 MW. That’s equivalent to 50 coal-fired plants. It’s huge stuff – that’s more than the state’s 24 million people can consume! So Texas will actually become a net exporter of renewable power! [Republican Governor] Rick Perry’s really got behind it; he’s backing the creation of new transmission lines to help provide the capacity needed. It helps that Texas has its own grid. There are three in the country: eastern, western and Texas! So that makes it easy for them.

If you look at the US as a whole, we brought 102 new wind farms online last year (2008), with a capacity of over 8,000 MW. OK, it’s dropped a little this year [as the recession takes its toll], but I think it should rise again next. New wind capacity far exceeds that in coal. And there are virtually no limiting factors. There’s a team at Stanford University who’ve modelled US wind resources and electricity consumption. They concluded that, because America’s so big, there’s really no major problem with intermittency. If the winds aren’t blowing on the east coast, they will be on the Great Plains, or the mountain passes, or offshore in the Great Lakes…

It’s not just wind. Solar thermal [concentrating solar power – CSP] is taking off, too. One thing I’m really excited about is the new molten salt technology. This uses the sun’s heat to melt salt, and as it cools it continues to drive the turbines for another six hours, taking them through from sunset to midnight – a peak period of electricity demand.

Then there’s geothermal energy, and biomass, fired by woodchips. All of this has continued through the recession. Investment levels have held up pretty well. The rate of growth slowed a bit, but the growth itself did not. They’re still surging ahead at a hefty rate.

Meanwhile, 22 coal plants are slated for closure or conversion [to other fuel sources]. This is partly because they’ve come to the end of their life, and partly because they’re simply not meeting tough new pollution standards set by the states or by the Environmental Protection Agency. I doubt very much there will be any licenses issued for new ones. 

Barry Nutley, of Viridis Energie Consultants, commented “Id never thought that I’d see the day Texas “export” renewable energy!”

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