Seminole Electric Cooperative Cancels Coal Plant; Considers Gas and Nuclear Options
At the end of last week, Seminole Electric Cooperative – the third largest power generator in Florida – announced that it was canceling a 750 MW coal fired power plant project that it had been developing near Palatka, Florida. The cooperative filed papers with state regulators announcing the cancellation. The stated reasons included uncertainties regarding long term regulations and prices for pollution emissions.
The cooperative also mentioned that it was considering other alternative power sources including natural gas, nuclear power and power purchases from other generators.
In a follow-up article, St. Petersburg Times columnist Robert Trigaux asked the thought provoking question “Did we just wave goodbye to the last new Florida coal plant”. However, he apparently did not even read his own paper’s article about the announcement since he did not mention that Seminole Electric had included nuclear power as one of its future generation options.
Being the nudge that I am, I wrote him a letter to remind him that there are few options for reliable, affordable power – especially in Florida. If coal gets removed from the list because it is too dirty or has too many uncertainties regarding future costs, the choices get narrowed considerably and have to include nuclear energy. Here is a copy of my letter:
Robert:
I read your recent article titled “Did we just wave goodbye to last new Florida coal plant” dated December 22, 2009. In your list of alternative power supplies that Seminole Electric may be considering instead of coal, you failed to mention that the company is considering a nuclear option.
A staff article that your own paper published on December 18, 2009 included the following statement “The cooperative said its options range from using natural gas or nuclear power to purchasing electricity from other power producers.”
There is little to no gas “under our feet” if your feet happen to be in Florida. All the gas in my native state comes from elsewhere through long pipelines that are difficult to site. They carry gas that is vulnerable to interruption and price fluctuations. Coal plant pollution is not a new concern; it was a problem to operate coal plants in the Sunshine State even in the 1970s and 1980s when my dad was building huge transmission lines to enable FPL to move coal by wire from Georgia.
Solar is a toy that can never produce reliable power – though innumerate people at Earthjustice have made the following silly statement – “Instead of sticking with dirty coal, Seminole Electric is considering building a 1.5 mega-watt solar energy project in southwest Florida.” The coal plant that the cooperative was considering had a reliable capacity of about 750 MW; it cannot be replaced by even a large number of 1.5 MW solar projects that generate that much electricity ONLY when the sun is shining brightly from directly overhead. The solar trend lines that you mention may show reductions in panel costs, but they do not imply a reduction in the price of reliable power in the absence of enormous subsidies.
Your readers deserve to understand the real options. If you want reliable, clean, affordable power in Florida, you cannot ignore the nuclear alternative. Progress Energy and FPL have used solid engineering and economic analysis to reach that conclusion; apparently Seminole Electric is starting to use similar analysis to determine its choices for future generation sources.
Best regards,
Rod Adams
Publisher, Atomic Insights
Kit,
The choice of power options for a generation station is not merely of local or regional interest. The option chosen has world wide significance. Climate change as a result of CO2 emission is not a localized phenomenon but is the aggregate of a multitude of individual local choices.
Ultimately the generation decision will be made locally but expert opinion and advice other than local has value. Despite some detractors, Rod has expert and articulate opinion.
Bill
Kit,
It’s not true coal is dirty? You never lived in Alaganehy Co., Pennsylvania like I did then. It’s filthy. It it particulate ridden. It needs to be *phased out* as soon as possible and replaced with clean nuclear. My whole weening away from previously held anti-nuclear position is based on how *wrong I was* promoting coal as an anti-nuclear alternative.
You are the only pro-nuclear advocate I know of who touts coal and nuclear outside the legions of know-nothing Republicans and Democrats in Congress who think they can live together.
Rod…sorry…a digression: you letter is very interesting. I suspect it won’t be printed but maybe you will get a direct response.
Bill, that is an interesting theory. Are you going to take responsibility for paying my electricity bill to keep my house warm? So Bill you have a very weak argument for minding others business.
David is an example of used-to-be ignorant anti nuke. Now he is an ignorant anti-coal like Rod.
If you have a dirty coal plant in your back yard, please replace it with something better but in the meantime please stop labeling all coal plants dirty.
See Bill I am anti irresponsibility and ignorance. I am an advocate of having a reliable supply of affordable electricity. Since the Florida PUC has previously denied coal as an option and allowed CWIP for nukes, it would seem that the state has a responsible policy inplace.
Rod lives in a state that where a new nuke might get built and does not have the favorable policies that Florida has. If Rod was more responsible he would become very knowledge on that project. He should be writing letter to support that project skipping the dirty coal part unless someone is proposing a coal plant instead.
Sorry…trying to find a “clean” coal plant someplace…
Kit – though many coal plants have figured out what to do with the SOx, and to a lesser extent, the NOx, and thus aren’t “dirty” in the conventional, pre-carbon limited sense, they still haven’t figured out what to do with the fly ash. That ash lagoon spill back a year ago, it wasn’t an exceptionally “dirty” coal plant that did it, I don’t think. Though of course there needs to be scientific follow-up to find out the results of releasing all those concentrated process residues into the human environment, the spill harmed a whole lot of people’s property and if the claims are to believed, their health as well. I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if some of those claims are real. Releasing concentrated fly ash ooze into a rural farming area can’t be the best thing for human health.
Overall, coal has served our nation very well over the two hundred years that it’s been in use. The time has come, however, for it to exit stage right, with the thanks of a grateful nation, as it’s been superseded by far more effective – and less uniquely dangerous and harmful – technologies. The best way the US can use our coal resources is as a transition source of liquids, a source of trained mining personnel for the uranium and thorium mines of the future, a source of steam plants and skilled steam plant personnel for coal to nuclear conversions (Jim Holm’s great idea), and as a heritage fuel for industrial and railroad heritage museums. It’s been noted as well, that even the fly ash can be leached to recover the uranium and other metals within – and there’s always plenty of fly ash to go around.
Where appropriate, coal boilers can be converted to biomass – at least wood ash and burnt crop residues can be used as fertilizer, but this isn’t appropriate except in a very few locations where you’ve got a tremendous amount of biomass and ways of extracting it cheaply. So the vast majority of coal boilers will need to be converted to nuclear – there may be a few grandfathered facilities too, that might have to be replaced entirely. I can imagine that the kind of investment in steam supply systems to convert coal plants to nuclear plants would be a way that a lot of vendors formerly in the coal industry could make some good money and stimulate the economy. For instance, new once-through steam generators would have to be procured. Why build a coal plant in Florida, anyway, just to use it for 10 to 30 years, when you’ve got all that thorium sitting around down there just waiting for some entrepreneur to start digging it up and making it into fuel rods? Wouldn’t be a prudent investment for the long term.
Remember that nobody is asking for anyone in the coal industry to unconditionally surrender and give up their jobs and their profits: you’re Americans too, and it wouldn’t be right to do that by way of you, as the situation isn’t under your control. We just want to discuss the future possibilities and ways in which everyone can continue to win, including the coal industry – which can easily find other very profitable lines of business to apply themselves in – especially if the copious subsidies taken, for example, from wind-mills that don’t work, could be applied to former coal firms in the transition to a world beyond coal – to which the core competencies of the coal industry could be applied – from metal mining, to uranium/thorium mining, to mining and metal/energy recovery from old landfills and abandoned industrial sites, etc. There’s plenty of stuff that an old and mature industry like the coal industry can do instead of mine coal, given suitable assistance, and probably make better profits at it as well.
Dave:
Would you mind if I promote your comment and use it in an Atomic Insights post?
No problem Rod, go right ahead.
katana0182(Dave)’s comment perfectly states what I have tried to say in months past. No one, individually or corporately, wants to have their “rice bowl” messed with – that being their livelihood, their income stream, whatever sustains their level of living.
Working with, instead of against, the coal industry and the associated industries with which they are affiliated would assure a smoother transition to the energy dense, near- zero emission power generation of nuclear plants.
We are an entrepreneurial people. Given the opportunity to fill a need while making a fair profit, the appropriate technology, good, or service will present itself, thanks to the inventiveness of free people. Good on ya, Dave!
Merry Christmas Rod
I am very pro-nuke. This is what Rod need to do. They are proposing a new nuke near where Rod lives. Rod needs to attend every public meeting for that plant. Rod needs to become very knowledge about the benefits of the plant to his communality. Rod needs to write letters to his local elected officials and papers.
The rest of you should do the same. We live in a democracy. Part of the citing process for power plants is public input. However, regulators and decision makers are not impressed with absurd ignorant claims about other generating choices.
Merry Christmas, Kit. FYI – I have driven down to Calvert County for two of the public meetings so far. I have signed the attendance rosters and spoken at both meetings.
I do maintain a day job and have not been able to attend the meetings held during working hours.
One challenge I have with devoting too much of my time in support of Calvert Cliffs III is that I like the technology far more than the industry and the specific company involved in that project. I am not a Mayo Shattuck fan. I also do not appreciate having a company asking for taxpayer funding when they are operating in a “competitive” market. Constellation owns a number of low marginal cost, fully depreciate generators. It is not in a rate regulated territory, so it is allowed to charge wholesale rates that are above 12 cents per kilowatt hour. By my computations they should be generating plenty of cash flow to support their capital investment needs. They do not need my help to sell their project as a worthy recipient of government largess.