The old coal-burning power plants are getting new life as solar, battery and other renewable energy projects because they are already wired into the power grid.
It can be expensive, time consuming and controversial to build miles of high-tension wires and towers from scratch. By plugging into the unused connections left behind, solar and other projects are avoiding regulatory hassles, and could speed up the transition to renewable energy.
In Illinois, at least nine coal-burning plants are on the verge of becoming solar farms and battery storage facilities. Similar projects are happening in Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, North Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Maryland Two retired coal plants along the coast of Massachusetts and New Jersey are being used to connect to the regional electrical grids.
The director of the Illinois chapter of the Sierra Club said that there was a silver lining to the dirty power plants. That is a big asset.
More than 600 coal-burning generators have retired over the past 20 years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Individual power plants can have multiple generators. The majority of the coal-burning power plants in the country were built in the 70s and 80s.
Coal won't be replaced with cheaper renewable energy as the industry gets squeezed out by stricter emissions regulations. Obstacles are being faced by renewable energy producers trying to connect their projects to the grid. New power lines can be expensive and controversial as neighbors often oppose transmission lines that can disturb scenic vistas. Power-line projects can be time consuming.
It has been cheaper to build and operate renewable energy projects. A scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said that the barrier is no longer economics. It's the hardest part of the job.
As a site for renewable energy projects, old coal plants are an attractive choice. Not only are the old plants wired into the transmission system, they also have substations, which help convert electricity to a supply that can be used in homes and businesses.
Michael Brown, chief executive officer of the offshore wind developer Mayflower Wind, said that Brayton Point Power Station was chosen as a grid connection point because of its location.
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The coal-fired plant was the largest in New England when it closed. The Italian company Prysmian Group will build an underwater cable factory in the town of Somerset. The offshore wind project will connect to the grid at Brayton Point.
In one of the most ambitious efforts, a Texas-based power generation company that also owns a variety of power plants in California and Illinois said it would spend $550 million to turn at least nine of its coal-burning facilities in Illinois into sites for solar panels and battery-operated vehicles.
A plant in Baldwin, Ill., that is set to retire by 2025, will get 190,000 solar panels. Depending on the time of year, the panels will produce between 13,600 and 34,000 kilowatts of power. It will get a battery that can store up to 9megawatts, which will help distribute electricity when demand peaks or the sun isn't shining.
It became clear that the power company would need to leave coal behind and it was eager to build new zero- emissions projects to replace some of the power from those plants. The process of getting approval from grid operators, which coordinate and monitor electricity supplies, has been a roadblock for many of the proposed projects.
A surge in proposals for wind, solar and battery storage projects has overwhelmed regulators, according to an analysis from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Wait times doubled from a decade before, to four years, and that doesn't include the number of projects that are withdrawing from the process entirely.
According to the report, we could hit 80% clean energy by the year 2030. We would be lucky if a quarter of what is proposed is completed.
The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act aimed to support a "just transition" for coal- dependent communities toward renewable energy by giving grants to three battery storage projects. Most of the coal plants in Illinois were already poised to shut down within a decade because of the new law.
The coal-to-solar energy storage grant program supports two other battery projects that will be built at the Will County coal-burning power stations.
The director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity said that the coal-to-solar program has two advantages. Projects benefit from the ease of reuse. She said it was an effort to invest in the communities that have lost coal plants.
The new projects will temporarily create construction jobs, but operating a solar plant or battery facility doesn't need as many employees. Around 105 full-time workers used to work at the plant. According to the company's communications director, Meranda Cohn, the nine Illinois projects will create 29 full-time jobs every year.
Coal plants can be redeveloped into renewable energy projects if they are located on a large parcel of land.
Jeff Bishop, chief executive of Key Capture Energy, which plans to locate a 20-megawatt battery storage project at a retired coal plant near Baltimore, Md., said it was shifting a negative resource into a positive one.
The retirement of Mount Tom Station, a coal plant that had been in operation for more than 50 years, presented a number of possibilities. The solar farm was the best way to give new life to the industrial land at Mount Tom.
The property is home to 17,000 solar panels and a small battery installation that are managed by a city-owned utility that gives customers the option to receive solar power from the project. The panels can power about 1800 homes.
Solar, battery and wind developers are not the only ones looking at old coal plants. Bill Gates founded TerraPower, a nuclear power venture that is locating a 345-megawatt advanced nuclear reactor next to a coal plant. Chris Levesque, the TerraPower president and chief executive, said that the location will allow the reactor to take advantage of the existing grid connection.
It would be a shame if those coal plants were not used.
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