FirstEnergy Corp. said Thursday that new environmental regulations led to a decision to shut down six older, coal-fired power plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
The plants, which are in Cleveland, Ashtabula, Oregon and Eastlake in Ohio, Adrian, Pa. and Williamsport, Md., will be retired by Sept. 1.
Two other factors have made it easier for utilities to shut old coal plants in recent years. Power demand has been weakening in recent years because of the slow economy and energy efficiency programs. And natural gas prices, which have fallen to decade-low levels in recent weeks, have allowed utilities to switch from coal to natural gas without impacting customer bills. Meanwhile, demand from China and elsewhere has driven up the price of coal.
2 comments:
"Power demand has been weakening in recent years because of the slow economy and energy efficiency programs."
Yay!
"Meanwhile, demand from China and elsewhere has driven up the price of coal."
Boo. Zero sum game? :(
Higher coal prices are also a factor in encouraging the switch to natural gas.
But low natural gas prices are also slowing demand for renewable energy.
The overarching problem is that we aren't reflecting the true costs of either coal or natural gas in these decisions.
Epstein's study has found that a full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal would add 17.8 cents per kWh to the cost of electricity generated by coal.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05890.x/full
We don't yet know what the true costs of natural gas due to fracking and pipeline leakage. All we know is that we aren't accounting for those costs in the price of natural gas today.
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