A coal plant in South Texas will shut down and convert to a photo voltaic + battery electrical energy technology facility, with the assistance of a $1.4 billion grant from the US Division of Agriculture meant to assist clear vitality 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 among 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 web site which leech into the native water desk and create a number of the most contaminated groundwater within the nation. Right here’s a passage from a 2022 Earthjustice report which analyzed contamination from coal crops:
Quite a few constituents had been present in concentrations exceeding related thresholds from the outset of monitoring in 2018—in wells each up- and downgradient from CCR models. These constituents embody arsenic (as much as 7 instances the Most Contamination Stage (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, observe that the coal plant resulted in 360x as a lot cobalt as is allowed within the groundwater safety commonplace – a component that individuals typically affiliate with electrical automobile 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 choice would positively be a giant win, given what an environmental stain it’s on the world.
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 obtained the biggest chunk of the $4.37 billion complete, with different websites principally getting grants within the a whole lot of thousands and thousands.
In complete, the grants will help 5,000 jobs and diminished local weather air pollution by 11 million tons per yr, 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 street, and help round 600 jobs.
The grant cash will probably be used to transform the plant away from coal energy and exchange it with photo voltaic and battery storage. Photo voltaic is an plentiful 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 strains.
However not solely that, the positioning’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 will probably 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 crops are inclined to take time to show on and off, that means it’s tougher to handle surprising peaks and troughs in electrical energy demand – plus, tools on the crops 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 crops are cheaper than previous coal – and that’s even ignoring externalities.
Whereas solar energy is usually thought-about intermittent – you’re on the mercy of the solar, in spite of everything – batteries can clear up that drawback. These batteries will help to easy out peaks and troughs in technology and demand, and will be dispatched to the grid inside milliseconds, to raised match provide with demand. They will also be used for vitality arbitrage, by charging when provide is plentiful 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 yr as a provision of the grant course of.
As soon as this transition is accomplished, Texas will probably be left with 14 coal crops. In 2023, Texas generated 71GWh of electrical energy by means of coal, down from a peak of 157GWh in 2011. Electrical energy technology within the state was 37.2% coal in 2000, and simply 13.1% in 2023.
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