Treehugger‘s Michael Graham Richard is jubilant:
This week [the Sierra Club is] celebrating a new milestone: The 200th U.S. coal plant retirement announcement since 2010. This is a huge deal, because in 2010 there were 535 coal plants in the country, so this is almost 40% of the fleet that is going away (and while it’s not always the biggest power plants that are retired, it’s usually the oldest and dirtiest ones).
Always good to hear, as coal plants are dirty power sources, emitting mercury along with the better known climate change gasses. Nuclear power plants have declined slightly recently as reported by the government:
Four reactors were taken out of service in 2013: the Crystal River plant in Florida with one reactor in February; the Kewaunee plant in Wisconsin with one reactor in April; and the San Onofre plant in California with two reactors in June. The Vermont Yankee plant in Vermont, with a single reactor, was taken out of service in December 2014.
The World Nuclear Association reports others are on the way, but economic headwinds make progress slow:
Despite a near halt in new construction of more than 30 years, US reliance on nuclear power has grown. In 1980, nuclear plants produced 251 billion kWh, accounting for 11% of the country’s electricity generation. In 2008, that output had risen to 809 billion kWh and nearly 20% of electricity, providing more than 30% of the electricity generated from nuclear power worldwide. Much of the increase came from the 47 reactors, all approved for construction before 1977, that came on line in the late 1970s and 1980s, more than doubling US nuclear generation capacity. The US nuclear industry has also achieved remarkable gains in power plant utilisation through improved refuelling, maintenance and safety systems at existing plants.
While there are plans for a number of new reactors (see section on Preparing for new build below), no more than four new units will come on line by 2020. Since about 2010 the prospect of low natural gas prices continuing for several years has dampened plans for new nuclear capacity.
Traditional hydroelectricity, aka dams, is also declining, as noted by American Rivers:
How many dams actually produce power?
FERC regulates approximately 2,300 hydroelectric producing dams. In addition, there are approximately 240 federal dams that produce hydroelectric power. Thus, there are a total of approximately 2,540 hydropower dams. …
Why are some dams being removed?
There has been a growing movement to remove dams where the costs – including environmental, safety, and socio-cultural impacts – outweigh the benefits – including hydropower, flood control, irrigation, or recreation – or where the dam no longer serves any useful purpose. The goal of removal can be multi-faceted, including restoring flows for fish and wildlife, reinstating the natural sediment and nutrient flow, eliminating safety risks, restoring opportunities for recreation, and saving taxpayer money. …
How many dams have been removed to date?
Currently, American Rivers is aware of almost 1,150 dams that have been removed over the past 100 years in this country. We are still in the process of gathering this data, so that figure continues to increase as more information becomes available. You can view an interactive map of all known U.S. dam removals.
HydroWorld.com provides several case studies of dam decommissioning here. However, non-traditional hydropower may be growing. One example is Lucid Energy, which provides systems for harvesting energy from surplus pressure present in city water mains:
Driven by the demand for reliable, cost-effective electricity, water- and energy-intensive industries, municipalities and agricultural irrigation districts worldwide can deploy our in-pipe hydropower system to generate millions of megawatt hours of renewable electricity from the water already flowing through their pipelines – without interrupting flow.
LucidPipe can operate across a wide range of flow conditions, volumes and velocities. The unique lift-based vertical axis spherical turbine design generates electricity by extracting excess head pressure from large diameter (24”-96”), gravity-fed water pipelines and effluent streams. To maximize electricity generation, several LucidPipe systems can be rapidly and easily installed into a single pipeline,* allowing operations to continue normally.
(h/t Discover Magazine July/August 2015)
Naturally, solar and wind are supplying more energy needs. For example, and full disclosure, I do have an investment in these folks, SolarCity (along with Xcel Power of Minnesota) is now providing a new approach to solar energy: community solar gardens.
SolarCity’s new community solar program will develop a series of up to one-hundred 1MW(AC) community solar installations, or “gardens,” in Wright and Sherburne counties. SolarCity will then invite renters, low-income housing residents, schools, and others in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to enter subscriber agreements to purchase the solar power the gardens produce at a rate of 13 cents per kWh. For up to 25 years, Xcel Energy will credit the subscribers at a rate of 14.7 cents per kWh of electricity that is purchased from SolarCity through a solar garden subscriber agreement. The anticipated 11.5 percent savings will be immediate for subscribers, who will remain Xcel Energy customers.
SolarCity will develop, operate and own the gardens and expects to hire local installation and operations personnel to build the projects. The company plans to reserve the majority of the gardens’ residential allocations in order to give some of the 600,000 apartment renters in Minnesota [1] access to affordable solar power. Community solar can also appeal to homeowners who have heavily shaded or north-facing roofs or those who do not want to make an up-front financial investment in a rooftop system.
(h/t The Motley Fool‘s Justin Loiseau)
As important as environmentalist organizations have been, corporations themselves also often see the light. While the political class remain bitterly divided on the importance of the environment, firms are beginning to move to preserve customers and, in point of fact, their very existence. Politicians often seem to exist in their own little worlds, but companies butt up against reality every day – and some are beginning to make positive moves.
