high cost

A solar peaker plant

January 1, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Peaker plants are power plants that the grid makes use of during times of particularly high electricity demand. The power they supply is typically high in cost and usually high in greenhouse gas emissions. When operating the electricity grid, power sources are generally called upon in order of marginal cost. Only when demand is very high do grid operators make use of the highest-cost assets that tend to be fossil-fueled power plants that can start and ramp up quickly.

For years, there has been the idea that solar-powered peaker plants could eventually replace the polluting fossil-fueled ones. Recently, the renewable energy developer, owner, and operator Arevon Energy began commercial operations of the Vikings Solar-plus-Storage Project in Imperial County, California. It is the first utility-scale solar peaker plant in the United States.

The plant utilizes a 157-megawatt solar array combined with 150 MW and 600 MWh of battery energy storage. It can shift low-cost daytime solar energy to higher-cost peak demand periods. The result is a lowered cost of electricity for nearly one million customers of San Diego Community Power.

The project contradicts the often-held notion that renewable energy is inherently unreliable. It can provide carbon-free electricity at specific times of critical need. Typical hybrid solar + storage plants provide electricity during daylight hours and store only excess generation in their battery systems. The Vikings project is specifically designed to shift the entirety of its generation from solar hours to the peak demand period.

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Arevon fires up the first solar + storage peaker plant in the U.S.

Photo, posted October 15, 2024, courtesy of Jay Inslee via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Stranded Coal Assets In Japan

November 25, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Japan is facing a looming financial problem as a result of heavy investments in coal technology that may quickly become stranded assets as renewable energy sources become increasingly inexpensive.

Japan is gradually adding more ambitious policies with regard to climate change including goals to reduce emissions and to have renewables become the main source of power over the next three decades. But despite these policy efforts, Japan is still investing heavily in coal power. Japan currently has 21 new coal projects with over 11 GW of under-construction, permitted or pre-permitted coal capacity. But these tens of billions of dollars in assets would have to be closed prematurely in order to remain consistent with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

According to a new report by the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a financial think tank, and the University of Tokyo, offshore wind power will be cheaper than coal in Japan by 2022, new solar cheaper by 2023, and onshore wind less expensive by 2025. The price of offshore wind is already comparable to existing coal power in Japan. Japan had a total of 55.5 GW of solar capacity last year and has the potential to reach 150 GW by 2030.

The report notes that 42% of the global coal fleet likely became unprofitable last year and this could rise to 72% by 2040. The authors contend that building coal power today equals high-cost power and financial liabilities tomorrow. The planned and operating coal capacity in Japan is partially protected by regulations that give coal generators an unfair advantage in the marketplace. Ultimately, the stranded coal assets are likely to be passed down to consumers through higher power prices.

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Land of the Rising Sun and Offshore Wind

Photo, posted April 25, 2019, courtesy of Jen via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The High Cost Of The Cloud

May 2, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

More and more often we make use of “the cloud” – that mysterious place where we store, move, process and analyze data. We keep our photos there. We stream music and videos from there. We do our work there. Perhaps we have a mental image of all of this digital information floating above our heads in some ethereal way: like in a cloud.