To quote Yogi Berra, It’s Deja Vu All Over Again. In June, it was the NYISO.
As New York Lags on Climate Goals, Some Dirty Plants May Stay Open Past Deadline
Air-polluting “peaker” plants were a top priority for closure in New York’s green transition. But the state isn’t building clean energy fast enough to replace them on time.
New York Focus. Read complete article >
This week, it’s the California Energy Commission.
Closure of 3 SoCal power plants, including one in Long Beach, likely to be postponed
Temperatures in many California cities are cooling down this week, but a debate is simmering on how to generate enough electricity to power the state through extreme weather events while transitioning away from a reliance on fossil fuels.
Long Beach Post News. Read complete article >
The California Energy Commission voted Wednesday to extend the life of three gas power plants along the state’s southern coast through 2026, postponing a shutoff deadline previously set for the end of this year. The vote would keep the decades-old facilities — Ormond Beach Generating Station, AES Alamitos and AES Huntington Beach — open so they can run during emergencies.
With all of the electrification plans that both states have, load increases are going to exceed the installation of generation. That will be far more true in NY State.
California has 2/3 the population density of NY State, despite having twice as many people so it is far easier to site large scale renewables without NIMBY resistance. It has good onshore wind resources on the Pacific Coast with wind turbines lining the hillsides. The attached video was taken recently during a trip from Fremont, California to Yosemite. Many of the hillsides look like the one in the video, covered in wind turbines. There is an abundance of mountainous terrain exposed to wind blowing off of the Pacific Ocean and no people living nearby to complain about them. Good luck finding that on Long Island. California has a solar capacity factor of 22%, so an equivalent sized solar array will generate 70% more energy in California than it will in NY State and as it sits on the Ring Of Fire, California has some of the best geothermal resources in the world with more geothermal generation than anywhere else. They also have a Mediterranean climate so they need relatively very little heat during the winter. Despite all of that, they are still having problems keeping up with load.
Rich Ellenbogen