Tag Archives: coal power
For Clean Power and Not-So, New Midwest Lines
A major Midwest utility, Ameren, said Monday that it had created a new subsidiary to build transmission lines in Missouri and Illinois that will bring more wind power onto the grid – not to mention coal power, from clean to conventional. Continue reading
Michigan’s Traverse City Light and Power Eyeing Natural Gas
The original plans called for the facility to burn wood (biomass) to help Traverse City Light & Power meet a goal of supplying 30 percent of their electricity requirements with renewable energy by 2020. The utility’s board will revisit those plans in July to discuss the shift in direction and to re- evaluate its strategic goals, the Traverse City Record- Eagle reports . Continue reading
Arizona’s Last New Coal Plant?
Unit 4 at the Springerville Generating Station began commercial operations in December and has been running at full throttle since then, burning about 60 rail cars’ worth of coal a day from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. The plant supplies low-cost electricity to the non-profit utility, but because of the stiff fight required to get it built, cost overruns and threat of global warming, some experts wonder if it will be the last new coal plant built in Arizona. Continue reading
Bill to cut coal power in Colorado has widespread backing
A proposal to reduce Xcel Energy Inc.’s coal-fired power generation along Colorado’s Front Range, and replace the use of coal with natural gas or other power sources, has gained the backing of Democrats and Republicans, Gov. Bill Ritter’s administration, environmentalists, the utility and the state’s natural gas industry. Continue reading
From Nevada: Coal-fired Plant May Be Out of Steam Before It’s Up
A controversial coal-fired power plant was supposed to be under construction near Mesquite by now. Sithe Global Power planned to have the Toquop Energy Project generating relatively cheap electricity by 2013 so it could sell the power wholesale to Nevada and other Southwest states. But the site remains empty, and many Mesquite officials, who haven’t heard from Sithe in months, figure the coal plant is not going to happen, Mayor Susan Holecheck says. Continue reading
The “Baseload” Myth
It’s become conventional wisdom that the grid can only incorporate a limited amount of renewable energy; ergo, we need coal and nuclear power plants for “baseload” electricity. Clean energy skeptics wave the word “baseload” around like a talisman. Continue reading
