Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (AP)-unpose, which lasted more and more offer in the US, are becoming increasingly valuable when suddenly the demand for electricity to launch cloud computing Big Tech and artificial intelligence has created a complete sprint to find new sources of energy.
President Donald Trump – who pushed us “energy domination” on the world market and suggested that this suggestedcoalCan help meet the rise in demand for power – possesses its emergency powersWill secure the utilitiesto keep old coal plants online andElectricity production.
While some utilities were alreadydelayCoal Plants Retire, Acne results that have been closed over the past coupleTechnology companiesventure capitalists,stateAnd others that compete for electricity.
This is because they have a very attractive quality: high voltage lines that connect to the grid they no longer use, and what new power plant can use.
This ready-to-move connection can allow a new generation of power plants-gasoline.nuclearWind, sunny and even battery storage – to meet the demand for new power sources faster.
Over the years, the bureaucratic nightmare around the construction of new high -voltage power lines has made efforts to get permits for such relationships for new power plants, said John Jacobs, an energy policy analyst in Washington, based on a bilateral policy center.
“They are very interested in the potential here. Everyone sees writing on the wall about the need for transmission infrastructure, the need for pure strength, difficulties in the location and value of re -using the brown fields,” Jacobs said.
The rise in demand for power, dying coal plants
According to the coincidence, it is forecast that the pace of aging factories in the country is accelerated at a time when the demand for electricity is increasing for the first time in decades.
In the December report, the Energy Department notes that its pleasure strategy, which requires re -use of coal factories that have not been able to compete with the flood of cheap natural gas, which is difficult to tighten the pollution rules aimed at its relatively heavy greenhouse gas emissions.
There are also federal incentives, tax credits and loans-which encourage redevelopment of pensioners in coal factories to new energy sources.
Todd Snitler, president and CEO of the power supply association representing independent power plants, said he expects Trump executive orders that some coal plants work longer than they are still designed to retire.
Increasing demand means that power plants are needed, quickly
Time is the essence in getting power plants on the Internet.
Data processing centers report long -standing waiting in some areas to connect to the regional grid. Legal permits for the construction of power lines can also be difficult to provide, given the objections of neighbors who may not want to live near them.
Stephen Defranka, Chairman of the Pennsylvania Communal Services Commission, said he believed that the rise in energy demand has made a pensioner with a coal factory much more valuable.
Thisre -set up your plansTo prefer sites such as retired charcoal plants as a label to meet the demand, Defrank said.
“This will make these properties more valuable, because while I am ready to shovel, these power plants are already installed, I can enter and convert it into anything,” Defranka said.
Gas, sunny and more on coal areas
In Pennsylvania, the vast majority of transformations are likely to be natural gas, as pension sits on top of the fertile reservoir Marcell, said Defrank.
In the States in the south, southern services are replaced by pensioner or retired coal gas units. These include a factory that belongs toTennessee Power; a Duke energy project in North Carolina; and the power of Georgiaplant.
High voltage lines on pension plants at the Atlantic coast in New Jersey and Massachusetts were used to connect sea turbines to electric networks.
In Alabama, on the site of the coal factory, the Gorgas plant, closed in 2019, will become a home for the first energy storage plant in Alabama Power.
Based on Texas VistMeanwhile, it is in the process of installing solar panels and storage plants on the Navy retirees and still working on coal plants that belong to them in Illinois, partly thanksState subsidiesapproved there in 2021.
Nuclear may come
Nuclear also getsa heavy appearance.
In Arizona, legislators promote the legislation to facilitate three utilities-state Arizona, Salt River and Tucson-electricity project to put advanced nuclear reactors on the site of pensioners with coal plants.
According to the governor of Indiana, the University of Perdue studied how the state could attract new nuclear energy. In his November report, he estimated that the re -use of the plant for the new nuclear power plant could reduce the cost of 7% to 26%.
The two -party political center in the 2023 study before the demand for electricity began, it estimated that nuclear stations could reduce costs from 15% to 35% by building retirees compared to construction on a new site.
Even construction near the coal plant can reduce the cost of 10%, using assets, roads and buildings, avoiding while avoiding some permits, the center reports.
That the relationship was a major driver forTheraporyWhen he decided to start building a next -generation atomic power plant near the Pacificorp Naughton carbon power plant.
Jobs, cities left behind coal
Catherine Haf, a former US-US Secretary Assistant, who is now an associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Shampin, said the department analyzed how many sites could be suitable for advanced nuclear reactor plants.
Workers from coal plants that can go to work at the nuclear station said, Hafi said. These include electricity, welding and steaming techniques.
In the city of Homer, the fear of losing its coal factory-it closed in 2023 after work for 54 years, has been on the hills of the coal country of Western Pennsylvania.
“It has been about 20 years for our area, maybe even longer than with the closure of the mines, and it was the last nail when the closure of the power plant,” said Rob Nimik, head of the city Homer. “It was:” Oh, God what we do? “
This is changing.
Plant owners over the last weeks have demolished the smoke and cooled towers in the city of Homer, which creates a state andannouncedA $ 10 billion plan on a natural gas campus.
It would be the third largest electricity generator in the country, and it sowed some optimism at the local level.
“We may move some families, it will help schoolgirls with their enrollment, it will help us with our population,” Nimik said. “We die, and hopefully we can get a restaurant or two to open and start thrive again. We hope.”
Originally this story was presented on Fortune.com
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2025-04-26 18:40:00
Marc Levy, The Associated Press
