Posted on 12/04/2023 12:27:21 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
Colorado-based cooperative Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association will accelerate the closure of a coal-fired unit in the northwestern part of CO, and announced a retirement date for an Arizona coal plant.
Tri-State said it wants to acquire at least another 1,250 MW of renewable energy generation over the next several years. The not-for-profit company, which serves rural electricity consumers across four western states, said the ERP filed with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission seeks to take advantage of funding from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s $9.7 billion Empowering Rural America program, part of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
The use of funding from the New ERA program will help Tri-State reduce the risks to its customers of higher energy bills due to the costs of retiring stranded assets. Tri-State said economic considerations were paramount in the decision to close the coal plants.
The utility announced it will close the last of three units at the 1,285-MW coal-powered Craig Station in Colorado by 1/1/28. Unit 3 originally was scheduled to close by 12/31/29. The retirements of Units 1 and 2 at Craig (by 12/31/25, and 9/30/28, respectively) were previously announced. Craig 1 and 2 are jointly owned by Xcel Energy, Platte River Power Authority, Salt River Project, PacifiCorp. and Tri-State; Tri-State wholly owns Unit 3.
Tri-State said it will close Arizona’s Springerville Station 458-MW Unit 3 in 2031. The Springerville power plant is a 1,765-megawatt, four-unit generating facility in eastern Arizona near the New Mexico border. Tri-State wholly owns Unit 3, which opened in 2006 and had an expected lifespan of 60 years. Units 1 and 2 at Springerville are owned by Tucson Electric Power, which has said it will close the units in 2027 and 2032, respectively. Unit 4, owned by Salt River Project, has no retirement date.
(Excerpt) Read more at powermag.com ...
Ask the Europeans and UK how that effort has worked out for them.
Yes, that is why goal and gas need to be continuously run, even if at modest levels assuming solar can be made somewhat successful. You can’t just switch them off and on whenever you need them. They need to keep running much like oil rigs in Siberia. They can’t stop them in winter regardless of the price of oil because they will just freeze up. They have to pump all winter or risk being frozen up or damaged.
Keep in mind that I have 64 solar panels for my 2,300 sq ft home. And it provides 80% of all the power I need year round (less in the winter, more in the summer). Now it's an all-electric home, and that includes charging our EV to drive 1,300 miles per month (the charging done at home, not counting when we charge it away from home on trips). Providing me with 80% of all of that ain't shabby -- but it's still a long way from 100%. And that's just for one family.
There's simply not enough roof space on most businesses to come close to 20% of their power need. Why should they bother going through all of that just to save 5% or 10% on their power bill?
Rolling blackout are so fabulous. So you may not have electricity, what’s wrong with that? How did the cavemen live, try their lifestyle, you will like it.
Just ask John Kerry. He wants to shut down evil fossil fuels so he flies to many conferences to spread his vision. So why you may ask is John Kerry using fossil fuels to travel about. Why doesn’t he live by the rules he sets for us? Why why why?
.......sadly, add Virginia to the mix; both houses of the Commonwealth’s General Assembly are now in Democrat hands, and the next governor’s race will quite likely see another Democrat elected...Richmond is a big city, the Commonwealth’s capital, and is a college town of sorts, too...and quite liberal...
“Isn’t Colorado full of libs? Maybe they need to be thinking of where their power is coming from in 5 years.”
It didn’t used to be but the coastal parasites have moved in. I knew my town was doomed when they started opening yoga and Tai Chi studios and when the council started pushing ‘Affordable Housing’.
Who are the idiots?
I don’t see idiots.
I see evil, destructive domestic enemies of The Republic.
If there were any they would have been fired long ago.
Stupidity on display.
They shouldn't and they won't as it doesn't make economic sense in most cases, though, some of the large warehouse might generate more from their flat roofs than they need inside - factories, probably not, small business probably not. Though they just built and In-n-Out burger near my office that has a solar panel "shade" that feeds into the restaurant and also the car chargers in their parking lot. If you're going to do it, do it as best as you can and again surface area is the key to it all.
But if taxpayers are putting $10 billion into it via subsidies (like we have a choice lol), it makes more sense to install the panels as close to the demand as possible. That would help make up the 20% shortfall you are experiencing in terms of capacity vs usage if it were fed back into the grid.
Curious, do you have on-site battery storage as well?
But equally important is making my home more energy efficient: caulk sealing cracks, gaskets around doors, replace my old AC and natural gas furnace with a variable speed heat pump (with heat strips for the few days it's too cold for the heat pump), and replaced my natural gas water heater with a hybrid water heater (runs at only 300W with a built-in heat pump that I make even more efficient by ducting to its air intake warm air from the attic, and during the warm months I duct the cold air from the water heater into an air intake of my central HVAC so that the cold air the water heater creates helps cool the home).
IMHO all of the other stuff should be done whether or not one goes solar (except maybe getting rid of natural gas appliances altogether like I did since my natural gas isn't free but electricity is mostly free).
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
ping
I knew people who worked on the Craig plant in construction! Also the Page AZ plants and Farminton (Waterflow) plants!
I guess our plant here in the Ozarks will be next.
Schutz Polis ’s priorities to keep his husband happy - introduction of huge Canadian exotic, not native wolf packs , wolverines — worse than badgers.. sage-grouse..
Kills family ranchers, farmers, outfitters, guide services, family motels, restaurants..
Springerville AZ to be shut down? The economic hit on those small towns will be bad!
I was in the utility boiler business when they were being built. I worked on a large coal-fired industrial boiler in Snowflake, AZ and lived in Pinetop, not far from Springerville.
It really hurts to see all these perfectly good plants being shut down prematurely with now viable replacement options.
It’s almost like it’s all on purpose.
So the green movement started with virtue signaling leftist “going green”. I wonder if the opposite might be possible by not buying green - refusal of green energy sources.
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