Red State Coal Towns still power the West Coast

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edwest4

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From today's LA Times. "Los Angeles, Portland and other progressive cities are still powered by faraway coal plants. We went to Montana to find out why."

No link, I hope for obvious reasons.
 
I posted in the Bar. That's where this sort of thing goes. Apparently, Progressives prefer going to Montana to understand why their local power company still gets power from coal. Climate change and all that...
 
Hobbes said:
It's pointless to keep posting this type of articles because they produce exactly the same arguments over and over again.
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Pointless? How do you know? Is your comment meant to be representative of everyone here?
 
Perhaps of related interest?

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Apr 16, 2024 #22 on Trending
We’re in the growing pains stage right now, working out the bugs that these new types of energy generation create, but if you pay attention to what’s happening in the industry, it’s mostly good news. A lot of people from all sides of the industry are working really hard on these engineering challenges so that we’ll soon come out with a more reliable, sustainable, and resilient grid on the other end.
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edwest4 said:
From today's LA Times. "Los Angeles, Portland and other progressive cities are still powered by faraway coal plants. We went to Montana to find out why."
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The following bit about the happenstance of using the existing infrastructure is definitely of interest,
Fortunately, they’ve got the power grid on their side.

In today’s highly regulated, thoroughly litigated world, long-distance power lines are incredibly hard to build. They can take years if not decades to secure all the necessary approvals — if they can get those approvals at all. As a result, wind and solar developers prize existing transmission lines, like those built to carry power from Colstrip and other coal plants to big cities.

The Clearwater wind farm offers a telling case study.

Two of Colstrip’s four coal units shut down in 2020 due to poor economics, opening up precious space on the plant’s power lines. That open space made it easier for NextEra to sign contracts to sell hundreds of megawatts of wind power to two of Colstrip’s co-owners, Portland General Electric and Puget Sound Energy — and thus get Clearwater built.

Montana wind is especially useful for Oregon and Washington because it blows strongest during winter, when those states need lots of energy to stay warm. On that front, Clearwater has been a huge success. During its first winter, it had a capacity factor of 60%, meaning it produced 60% of all the power it could possibly produce, if there were enough wind 24/7.

Sixty percent is a lot — “like a home run,” Puget Sound Energy executive Ron Roberts says.

He and his colleagues want more. Puget Sound plans to build more Montana wind turbines to serve its Washington customers — again taking advantage of the Colstrip power lines.
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edwest4 said:
Pointless? How do you know? Is your comment meant to be representative of everyone here?
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I know because I've seen your previous threads on this subject proceed to be filled along entirely predictable lines.
 
Hobbes said:
I know because I've seen your previous threads on this subject proceed to be filled along entirely predictable lines.
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Oh, well. And how is that a problem? Discussions require things to discuss. I think many here would like to know about the transition from coal to wind and solar panels. I thought it strange that Progressives felt the need to go to Montana when they could tell their local power company to just stop buying power from coal-fired plants. But, I think they forgot that their lights would go out... and computers.
 
Discussing the same thing over and over again becomes pointless. Nobody's presenting any new arguments, opinions have become entrenched. It's like watching reruns of a crappy soap opera.
 
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