A coal plant in South Texas will shut down and convert to a photo voltaic + battery electrical energy era facility, with the assistance of a $1.4 billion grant from the US Division of Agriculture meant to assist clear power whereas saving rural jobs.
The grant will go to San Miguel Electrical Cooperative Inc (SMECI) headquartered in Atascosa County, Texas, south of San Antonio, and serving 340,000 clients 47 South Texas counties.
SMECI has operated a mine mouth lignite-fired coal plant (named attributable to its proximity to the mine that provides it) since 1982. The plant is within the city of Christine, Texas, inhabitants 337.
However that coal-fired plant is likely one of the dirtiest in Texas. It’s the fourth-largest mercury polluter within the state, producing round 12 instances as a lot mercury as is allowed by a brand new EPA rule.
It additionally has two coal ash ponds on website which leech into the native water desk and create a few of the most contaminated groundwater within the nation. Right here’s a passage from a 2022 Earthjustice report which analyzed contamination from coal vegetation:
Quite a few constituents have been present in concentrations exceeding related thresholds from the outset of monitoring in 2018—in wells each up- and downgradient from CCR items. These constituents embrace arsenic (as much as 7 instances the Most Contamination Degree (MCL)), beryllium (as much as 112 instances the MCL), boron (as much as 28 instances its 10-day baby well being advisory), cadmium (as much as 83 instances the MCL), cobalt (as much as 360 instances its default GWPS within the CCR Rule), lithium (as much as 82 instances its default GWPS), selenium (as much as 16 instances the MCL), and radium (as much as 6 instances the MCL).
–Toxic Coverup, The Widespread Failure of the Energy Trade to Clear Up Coal Ash Dumps, Earthjustice, 2022
Particularly, notice that the coal plant resulted in 360x as a lot cobalt as is allowed within the groundwater safety customary – a component that individuals usually affiliate with electrical automotive batteries, however can be current in lots of fossil fueled functions (oil refining, for one).
So, shifting away from this coal plant and to a cleaner possibility would positively be a giant win, given what an environmental stain it’s on the realm.
In September, SMECI was chosen as a finalist for a brand new USDA “Empowering Rural America” grant, and this week, was formally chosen as one of many websites to obtain a part of grant, alongside 9 others. SMECI acquired the biggest chunk of the $4.37 billion whole, with different websites principally getting grants within the lots of of tens of millions.
In whole, the grants will assist 5,000 jobs and diminished local weather air pollution by 11 million tons per 12 months, in accordance with the USDA. SMECI’s grant will cut back local weather air pollution by 1.8 million tons, as a lot eradicating 446,000 vehicles from the highway, and assist round 600 jobs.
The grant cash can be used to transform the plant away from coal energy and substitute it with photo voltaic and battery storage. Photo voltaic is an ample useful resource in sunny South Texas, and the plant already has grid connections to make this a neater drop-in than having to run new transmission traces.
However not solely that, the location’s capability will see a major improve. The present coal plant can produce as much as 410 megawatts of energy, however the upcoming photo voltaic plant can be able to 600 MW – almost half once more as a lot as its earlier capability.
And pairing this solar energy with grid-tied batteries will assist to make the grid extra resilient, too. Thermal energy vegetation are likely to take time to show on and off, that means it’s more durable to handle surprising peaks and troughs in electrical energy demand – plus, gear on the vegetation tends to put on when it heats up and cools down quite a bit, contributing to the excessive prices of coal energy. There have been quite a few research displaying that new photo voltaic vegetation are cheaper than previous coal – and that’s even ignoring externalities.
Whereas solar energy is usually thought of intermittent – you’re on the mercy of the solar, in any case – batteries can remedy that drawback. These batteries will help to clean out peaks and troughs in era and demand, and might be dispatched to the grid inside milliseconds, to higher match provide with demand. They can be used for power arbitrage, by charging when provide is ample and discharging when demand is excessive.
Whereas there’s no introduced timeline but for precisely when the plant will full its transition, SMECI will develop a Neighborhood Advantages Plan over the course of the subsequent 12 months as a provision of the grant course of.
As soon as this transition is accomplished, Texas can be left with 14 coal vegetation. In 2023, Texas generated 71GWh of electrical energy by way of coal, down from a peak of 157GWh in 2011. Electrical energy era within the state was 37.2% coal in 2000, and simply 13.1% in 2023.
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