The Coal Plant Of The Future

[Rhiannon12866]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) wants to develop so called “Coal-Based Power Plants of the Future” according to a recent Request for Information. Well, not exactly. To be precise, the DOE is seeking information “that may culminate” in the operation of such a coal fired power generating plant. No funding opportunity here--at least not yet. But commercial operation is still sought by 2025.

The DOE's information request pertains to a “highly efficient” plant (over 40 percent efficiency) that is also modular or small (50-350 MW). The hope is that manufacturers would be able to sell these new designs both here and abroad. It should have load following capability and be carbon-capture ready. It must be at least 75 percent fueled by coal. A commercial system would (hopefully) be ready within 10 years. A detailed explanation of how this coal plant of the future would use or capture carbon should be included as well.

The DOE also wants to know if the plant would operate off the grid and whether it provides other products than electricity, like steam for example. The DOE also wants to know levels of prospective employment, as well as listing all financial and regulatory impediments. And when answering please keep the reply to a succinct 10 pages.

A reader might be excused for remarking that fossil fueled electric power generating plants with those characteristics already exist. But they burn natural gas. And we seem to have a lot of that fuel. And it's cheaper and cleaner than coal. But no matter.


More: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Coal-Plant-Of-The-Future.html

[NNadir]

1. Natural gas is neither a clean, nor a sustainable, nor a cheap fuel.

The big lie about it being "cheap" is that the users of filthy natural gas users are not required to meet the standards applied by ignorant people to the nuclear industry, which is that no person at any time - even a totally scientifically uneducated moron - can imagine something going wrong, and that no amount of "waste" ever escape into the environment.

Seen in this way, in terms of its external costs, natural gaswill be incredibly expensive, to the future generations who will be required to clean the mess created by natural gas, and it's window dressing, the wind and solar industries.

Not far from where I live, several people were killed when their house blew up from natural gas. This is hardly the only case of this type of event in this country or around the world.

Imagine if there had been something radioactive in one of those houses. It would be all over the internet, from Europe to North America.

As it is, no one gives a shit.

We hear all the time from the worst people in the world, that nuclear energy is "not competitive." This, of course, is a cynical remark of hatred for all of humanity that comes after us. The nuclear industry, and the nuclear industry alone, is the only industry in the world that has thought deeply about the effects of its operations on people living thousands of years from now.

It is ironic that the same assholes who promote the tightly intertwined and mutually dependent gas/wind/solar industry attack nuclear energy on these grounds, with specious and stupid remarks about thousands of years from now.

The gas industry dominates in this tripartite relationship in terms of energy , and its connection to wind and solar is simply a marketing relationship. People accept gas because they foolishly and mindlessly believe solar and wind are significant. They haven't been so; they aren't; and they won't be.

Coal by the way, has not gone away. In the 21st century it was the fastest growing source of primary energy. It grew by 60 exajoules from 2000-2016 to reach 157 exajoules of the 576 exajoules we now consumed, closing the gap on oil.

The gas industry is growing in the 21st century, but not as fast as coal, at least as recorded up to 2016. (The oil industry is growing too.) None of the fossil fuels are moving in a negative direction in terms of exajoules produced.

IEA 2017 World Energy Outlook, Table 2.2 page 79 (I have converted MTOE in the original table to the SI unit exajoules in this text.)

[cyclonefence]

2. The coal plant of the future

is an enormous field of solar collectors.

[hunter]

3. No thank you if they are built over previously undeveloped land.

Large desert solar projects on previously undisturbed or restorable landscapes are an abomination.

I don't care if solar is installed over parking lots and roof tops, but I don't suffer any illusions that solar power will save what's left of the natural environment.