Your op/ed piece today on renewable energy comes off as written by a coal company executive. In a day when it is widely accepted that the climate is changing and resources are dwindling, advocating for antiquated coal power is irresponsible.
Renewable energy, like wind, solar, and hydroelectric, are essential in moving forward. Bashing our state government for pushing a progressive agenda that reduces pollution and the tax on resources is not only counterproductive, but also ignorant. No, the wind doesn't always blow everywhere. No, the sun doesn't always shine in Michigan. But streams and rivers always flow. No, a power grid in isolation in Michigan cannot function on such sources alone. No grid functions in isolation. But most of the US and Canadian grids are connected.
Perhaps you missed the black out a few years back. Your coal/nuclear power grid wasn't so stable back then. Had large wind farms, hydroelectric, and solar generation been in place, they would have continued to provide at least some power when the more traditional plants went down. Perhaps then we would not have had to boil water and trash all our food. Even if there were still outages, I don't believe that they would have been as wide reaching or long lasting.
Yes coal must still play a part in our energy needs, but lets not start building more dirty coal plants. Nuclear also has a role, but no nuclear plants have been built in the US in decades. Concerns over safety and nuclear waste are real, and big deterrents. I would prefer to have a seagull or a duck meet an unfortunate end with a misguided crash into a windmill(i cant believe that happens all that often, most birds are pretty agile, and the blades are the size of tour buses) than have Chernobyl right here at home. (Thats hyperbole, by the way)
Michigan legislators are on the right track with setting modest renewable energy goals. It sparks innovation and what could be a new industry to bring some jobs and wealth back to the state. Coal's role in our power needs going forward must be balanced against the pollution that it puts out. We should never allow any new coal plants to be built that are not gasification plants, as the pollution is drastically reduced and efficiency is greatly increased.
Efficiency gains are another benefit of coal gasification. In a typical coal combustion plant, heat from burning coal is used to boil water, making steam that drives a steam turbine-generator. In some coal combustion plants, only a third of the energy value of coal is actually converted into electricity, the rest is lost as waste heat.
A coal gasification power plant, however, typically gets dual duty from the gases it produces. First, the coal gases, cleaned of impurities, are fired in a gas turbine - much like natural gas - to generate one source of electricity. The hot exhaust of the gas turbine is then used to generate steam for use in a more conventional steam turbine-generator. This dual source of electric power, called a "combined cycle," is much more efficient in converting coal's energy into usable electricity. The fuel efficiency of a coal gasification power plant in this type of combined cycle can potentially be boosted to 50 percent or more. (source)
Our energy use in the US dwarfs much of the world and we lead the industrialized world in polluting. Check out this website to see how well, or more accurately, poorly we do compared to the rest of the world.
Lets not bash anyone for taking steps to lessen our impact on the Earth. We should all do what we can.
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