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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 JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 11 2019, @09:55PM
Generally speaking, wind power blows. Bad for birds, bad for noise, and people hate change so they hate the way the turbines look. The only way it gets sold into a lot of communities is with "spinning fees" which, if properly shared around, change attitudes to "oh, that noise, that's the sound of money coming to me..." kind of like factory chicken and pork farms "oh, that smell, that's the smell of money" (neighbors hate them.)
As solar power gets more efficient, it should take over an increasing share of wind power's market. There's certainly less to complain about, especially when it's deployed on places like existing rooftops.
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