Green Energy Goals May Leave Millions Without Power
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Green Energy Goals May Leave Millions Without Power
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As companies shut down coal plants to meet green energy goals, ordinary Americans may be left holding the bag.
From Fox News. A major U.S. energy developer has initiated the process of shuttering two major coal-fired power plants serving more than a million homes in the upper Midwest, helping the company meet its corporate climate commitments.
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Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy announced this month that it closed one of three coal units at Sherburne County Generating Plant, Minnesota’s largest power plant, as part of its plans to deliver 100% carbon-free electricity to customers and shut down all of its remaining coal facilities. The company is planning to retire the two remaining units at the plant and another coal plant in Minnesota, the Allen S. King plant, by 2030.
In response to Xcel Energy’s shutdown of the unit at Sherburne County Generating Plant and plans to shutter all remaining coal generation, the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission (SDPUC) fired off a letter urging the company to reconsider those plans. The company — which has pledged to replace the plants with electricity generation from green energy like solar — provides power to customers in both Minnesota and South Dakota.
“The North American Electric Reliability Corporation recently released a long-term risk assessment that showed the MISO region as having a high reliability risk around the time period the plants are planned to be closed,” SDPUC Chair Kristie Fiegen told Fox News Digital. “One of the main contributors to that reliability risk is the premature retirement of dispatchable baseload generation before the appropriate replacement resources are added to the system.” …
In December, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation — a nonprofit organization that makes periodic recommendations to boost reliability — published its annual Long-Term Reliability Assessment. According to the report, the region managed by Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), which oversees much of the Midwest including Minnesota and South Dakota, faces some of the highest grid risks as a result of coal generation retirements that are projected to outpace new green energy development at certain points in the future.
Xcel’s shutdown of the Sherburne County Generating Plant and Allen S. King Generating Plant would account for a sizable share of that existing coal generation scheduled to soon be taken offline. The two plants have a total capacity of nearly 3,000 megawatts, enough to power more than a million homes. …
Under Xcel’s plans, it will build a 710-megawatt solar farm at the site of the Sherburne County Generating Plant and solar projects with a total capacity of 650 megawatts to replace the Allen S. King Generating Plant. However, those plans wouldn’t produce enough power to replace the electricity generation of the two retiring coal facilities and would further represent intermittent forms of power that are dependent on weather conditions. …
“Premature closure of reliable baseload energy could put lives at risk if the electric system isn’t ready to absorb those retirements,” [Fiegan] said. “To this Commission, the NERC risk assessment is a flashing, bright-red warning light that there is good chance this could be the case.”
Energy experts have long warned that replacing fossil fuel power generation with green energy could present risks, since those alternatives produce a smaller share of their listed capacity.
Solar panels, for example, produce just 25% and wind turbines produce 34% of their listed capacity, according to federal data. Coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants, meanwhile, produce 49%, 54% and 93% of their listed capacity, respectively. …
Overall, Xcel — whose largest shareholders include BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, massive asset managers which have forwarded so-called environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives — has issued some of the most aggressive corporate sustainability goals of any developer in the nation, vowing to lower its electricity emissions 80% by 2030 and fully decarbonize its electricity generation by 2040.
Those goals, according to Xcel, are based on United Nations climate projections and targets. And to achieve its goals, Xcel has pledged to shutter fossil fuel power generation and vastly expand its green energy development while maintaining the size of its existing nuclear power fleet. …
Share this article to encourage people to pray for families in the upper Midwest who may be left without power.
(Excerpt from Fox News. Photo Credit: Anders J on Unsplash)
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Lord, please continue to expose this agenda that comes from the pit of hell though the World Economic Forum. Expose those lies and demonic manifestations in Jesus name
I declare death to these and any other electric power plans that kills, steals and destroy life of the people. in the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. amen.
The situation is complicated. Coal and hydro plants were our first power sources and so coal plants are often very old (built in the 1920 – 1960s) and the environment around coal plants causes metal to rust quickly, so many aging coal plants have to be replaced. So, a utility may have no choice. On the other hand, solar and wind have many disadvantages. When the temperatures drop to their lowest point, it is usually in the night and in the morning when solar is not available due to either to the sun not shining at all or being low in the sky, and of course, less power when the sky is cloudy. Wind patterns can change as they did in Germany for a period of time, causing them to bring their coal plants back up. Solar also degrades 7% a year and so over time produces less and less power until it reaches the point of having to be replaced and as most know, requires large tracts of land. The United States is working on developing modular nuclear units (small units). This approach has worked in France for many years who has something like 56 nuclear units, built by the government and since they are all the same, use the same parts and staff can move between them. But when a part fails, it usually fails on many of the units and this unfortunately happened recently during the gas crisis. They developed leaks in their pipes and something like 36 units had to be taken offline at one time. And there is also this: Russia and its satellite countries control the market on nuclear fuel. At this point, until modular nuclear units and other fuel sources are developed (may be ten years out), gas is our most reliable option but, in my opinion, it is not wise to make any country dependent on any one source as prices, supplies or even politics can quickly change. Some solar and wind are good in that they diversify our power sources.
Thanks for your post Jim . Very educational!!
I wish to add that coal plants continued to be built into the 90s. The viability of those plants have to be determined individually.
Solar degrades by 0.7% every year. I miswrote that part of the above.
I live in Texas where agriculture is a very big part of our local economy. We ship beef and vegetable products all over the country. Over the last several years solar farms have been replacing grazing land in many parts of the state and I have never seen any studies showing this long term effect..
Father we present again this situation before your throne. We unite in our savior Jesus’s name that our energy is not subject to some short term woke agenda influenced by our enemy. And as we stand here shoulder to shoulder we also create an echo across the land of praise and worship unto you .. our very breath !!!