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Gas Plants Will Get Crushed by Wind, Solar by 2035, Study Says
By 2035, it will be more expensive to run 90% of gas plants being proposed in the U.S. than it will be to build new wind and solar farms equipped with storage systems, according to the report Monday from the Rocky Mountain Institute. It will happen so quickly that gas plants now on the drawing boards will become uneconomical before their owners finish paying for them, the study said.
The authors of the study say they analyzed the costs of construction, fuel and anticipated operations for 68 gigawatts of gas plants proposed across the U.S. They compared those costs to building a combination of solar farms, wind plants and battery systems that, together with conservation efforts, could supply the same amount of electricity and keep the grid stable.
As gas plants lose their edge in power markets, the economics of pipelines will suffer, too, RMI said in a separate study Monday. Even lines now in the planning stages could soon be out of the money, the report found.
Hopefully our electrical distribution grid will still work.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday September 11 2019, @08:12AM (3 children)
Parsing: "Gas Plants Will Get Crushed by Wind, [and] Solar [Will Get Crushed] by 2035".
Like in a game of "Gas, Wind, Solar, 2035".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 11 2019, @12:29PM (2 children)
Parsing: Construction industry giggles with glee and continues their extensive lobbying efforts to encourage the building of facilities that are budgeted for 50+ year lifetimes but will be decommissioned in about 25.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Acabatag on Wednesday September 11 2019, @01:15PM (1 child)
Maybe. What it says is that by 2035 it will begin to be more economical to go solar/wind. That means rolling out the gas plants should go on for now, but they can be built at a lower cost to last less long.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday September 11 2019, @04:52PM
The finance wizards can start pricing this into any future planned power plants. It will get more expensive to finance them, as the risk of default is higher. That could lead to methods to reduce the cost by reducing the lifetime. It all evens out in the end, if this new information is taken into account.
For the gas-fired plants already in progress or currently in operation, the owners will need to look for an exit strategy. Maybe they can raise rates now to offset future losses, or maybe they can plan for a scheduled bankruptcy.
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