Why can't we build more efficient and cleaner operating power plants?
Most utility compannies should be VERY HAPPY to build new plants and shut down the old ones. The savings in fuel would pay off quickly.
TXU in Texas wanted to build 11 new plants... Environmentalist ad campaigns got the plan reduced to less than half as many. Because the new plants won't be built: old, ineffiient, dirty plants will have to be kept on line for 20 or 30 more years, rather than shut down.
Electric generation companies get bad publicity for not having adequate power production capacity, but when they try to build plants to meet the demand, they get bad publicity.
They get bad publicity for operating plants that produce lots of pollution, but they aren't allowed to build the newer less polluting plants.
They get bad publicity for high energy costs and aren't allowed to build more efficient plants that would allow them to lower the price to the consumer.
Aren't Liberal envirowhackos idiots?
Answer:
I think you adequately answered your own question.
uhm 1) we can and do. And to your final question - not all environmentalists or liberals are idiots or whacko.
Just as not all non-liberals and non-environmentalists are guarenteed smart or sane. :)
We need to develop alternative fuels to burn in these plants we have. We also need to use the sun and wind more not to mention the wave action of the ocean. We definitely need to quit burning fossil fuels that pollute and are not renewable energy.
Nuclear power works for some european countries. Power by coal is really messy. I wonder about the same things you do!
Hi,
I hope you are really open minded about the question you asked, because I am going to disagree with much of what you put forward :)
Coal fired power plants generate a lot of CO2. For each KWH they generate, they produce about 2 lbs of CO2 -- much more that electricity plants powered by other fuels. This is due to: coal having very high carbon content, and therefore producing a lot of CO2 when burned, and coal plants having a very low efficiency -- about 35%. Coal fired electricity plants are responsible for about 34% or ALL CO2 emissions in the US!
The new plants that the utility industry would like to build are only marginally more efficicent. Of the 150 or so applications in to build new coal plants, nearly all use the same technology as current plants, and incorporate only small improvements in efficiency. They are still very very dirty plants from a green house gas point of view.
The new technology that could make for a dramatic reduction in CO2 emissions from coal plants would be the
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants. These plants operate on a fundamentally different cycle, that is not only much more efficient, but also allows separation of the CO2 from the exhaust stream so that it can be sequestered permanently underground. This is a technology that has been proven in full sized power plants, but the utility industry is not interested in these plants because they cost a about 20% more to build. Instead, they are trying to get old technology plants built before they are required to build the newer technology plants -- thus the rush of applications for build "new" plants that use old technology.
There is a very good article on this here:
http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/05fal/coal1.
The policy I would like to see is a moratorium on new coal plants that don't include sequestration of CO2. This could be coupled with a serious effort to conserve energy in order to avoid energy short falls. We waste so much energy that cutting electricity use by enough to avoid the need for new plants in the near future would be easy -- see this example:
http://www.builditsolar.com/references/h...
Gary
More people need to band together on these types of issues. I think that's the only way we're going to make any headway.
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