Virginia will be using more coal for electricity production in the future than it has in the past for a number of reasons that become more evident and pressing every day.
We cannot go on squandering limited natural gas supplies on unlimited burning for electricity production when coal is so much more economical. Nor can we expect to see more nuclear power any time soon, not if Congress continues to drag its feet in appropriating funds for loan guarantees to support construction of new nuclear plants. These nuclear plants, which are estimated to cost at least $7 billion each, are not expected to begin commercial operation until 2016, at the earliest.
Nor can we deface our Virginia coastline and countryside with towering wind turbines on a massive scale, when coal plants require much less space and are so much more reliable. While coal provides more than 50 percent of the electricity used in Virginia and nationally, renewable sources such as solar and wind supply less than 2 percent and supply only peak power because of their unreliability.
Coal plants produce "base-load" electricity, the power that is available around the clock, to keep traffic lights on and household appliances performing when the button is pushed. This is beyond the ability of solar and wind energy, which are available only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing at the necessary velocity. Wind is an intermittent source of electricity, as Texans recently discovered when the electricity grid had to cut power to some offices and factories when wind speed dropped--and with it, electricity produced by the state's wind farms.
Advocates of renewable energy shudder at the very mention of coal, arguing that it can never be made acceptable from an environmental standpoint. But contrary to the assertions of environmentalists, coal is neither dead nor dying.
In Virginia and around the country, power plants are using coal more efficiently, boosting output while reducing emissions. In fact, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, coal plants are 33 percent less polluting than in 1980 when I began shipping coal to what was then Virginia Power. New advances in clean-coal technology, particularly the possibility for carbon capture and storage, are achievable. As the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded in a major study on the future of coal worldwide, "We believe that coal use will increase under any foreseeable scenario because it is cheap and abundant."
So we are going to build more coal plants, and there is no good reason not to begin soon. Dominion Power is gearing up to build a power plant in Southwest Virginia that will use clean-coal technology to improve efficiency and reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen. Even with conservation, Virginia is approximately 2,000 megawatts short of what is required when demand for electricity peaks. The proposed plant will help close this supply gap.
Mercury emissions...(posted by
Liberal
, May 5, 2008 8:42 pm)
Is it true that the Wise County plant will emit over 4 times the amount of mercury per-megawatt of Dominion's Clover station in Halifax? Mercury is a neurotoxin linked to developmental damage in fetuses, children & adults. A new study from The University of TX Health Science Center shows a statistically significant link between pounds of industrial release of mercury and increased autism rates. It also shows a statistically significant association between autism risk and distance from the mercury source.
Windmills...(posted by
Liberal
, May 5, 2008 8:34 pm)
Actually, windmills are far more attractive than air that kills people. It’s one thing to talk about clean coal and carbon-capture, but isn’t the Wise County coal-fired power plant approved by the SCC a conventional coal facility? Not one cent of the $1.6 billion to build the plant will go to address the plant's global warming pollution, either now or at any time in the future.
Another special interest(posted by
winwood
, May 5, 2008 9:53 am)
Blah, blah, blah. Lots of nice words. Coal plants are still the dirtiest form of electricity there is....by a long shot. Lets give nuclear, wind, and natural gas priority over coal, until coal cleans up its act.
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