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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsConservative Indiana Chooses Renewables Over Gas As It Retires Coal Early
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2019/07/02/mike-pences-indiana-chooses-renewables-over-gas-as-it-retires-coal-early/?fbclid=IwAR1K0aFhfkjN9faPjmOI8oUABioGs5Q4-hjyJ8hZFck6paAAWNXNvpo1jYQ#5760152543b4
Los Angeles just announced the largest and cheapest solar+storage project in the world, but that's the golden land of dreamers and subsidies. About 1,800 miles to the right, conservative Indianawith no renewable-portfolio standardis making similar choices.
Renewables are so cheap, said Mike Hooper, the senior vice president of the Northern Indiana Service Company (NIPSCO), that the utility can close its coal plants early and return $4 billion to its customers over the next 30 years.
"It ends up being a really big number, somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 billion for our customers, and clearly a lot of that comes from the fact that theres hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel every year from a marginal standpoint that you're not spending, that the customer gets the advantage of through the check they write us every month."
NIPSCO, which delivers power to the northern third of Indiana, issued a request for proposals in 2018 to transform its energy system away from coal. The company had issued a similar RFP in 2016, but the results it got this time were markedly different.
"We kind of made an assumption that as the results came back it would be very much similar to 2016, particularly where we sit in the world, that natural-gas generation would be the most cost-effective option," Hooper said. "And as we ran this RFP and got our results back, we were surprised to see that windespecially early wind in service in 2020 and 2021and then solar, on a levelized-cost-of-energy-basis, were significantly less expensive than new gas-fired generation."
Los Angeles just announced the largest and cheapest solar+storage project in the world, but that's the golden land of dreamers and subsidies. About 1,800 miles to the right, conservative Indianawith no renewable-portfolio standardis making similar choices.
Renewables are so cheap, said Mike Hooper, the senior vice president of the Northern Indiana Service Company (NIPSCO), that the utility can close its coal plants early and return $4 billion to its customers over the next 30 years.
"It ends up being a really big number, somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 billion for our customers, and clearly a lot of that comes from the fact that theres hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel every year from a marginal standpoint that you're not spending, that the customer gets the advantage of through the check they write us every month."
NIPSCO, which delivers power to the northern third of Indiana, issued a request for proposals in 2018 to transform its energy system away from coal. The company had issued a similar RFP in 2016, but the results it got this time were markedly different.
"We kind of made an assumption that as the results came back it would be very much similar to 2016, particularly where we sit in the world, that natural-gas generation would be the most cost-effective option," Hooper said. "And as we ran this RFP and got our results back, we were surprised to see that windespecially early wind in service in 2020 and 2021and then solar, on a levelized-cost-of-energy-basis, were significantly less expensive than new gas-fired generation."
I knew it. Republicans talk about supporting coal miners but they always value money over everything else. Coal just can't compete as renewables get cheaper.
New Solar + Battery Price Crushes Fossil Fuels, Buries Nuclear
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2019/07/01/new-solar--battery-price-crushes-fossil-fuels-buries-nuclear/#64e34b1c5971
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Conservative Indiana Chooses Renewables Over Gas As It Retires Coal Early (Original Post)
IronLionZion
Jul 2019
OP
Had to laugh at the line "return $4 billion to its customers". What a nice gesture.
Midnight Writer
Jul 2019
#1
Midnight Writer
(21,802 posts)1. Had to laugh at the line "return $4 billion to its customers". What a nice gesture.
Reminds me of the bit about how moving our factories overseas will keep prices down for American consumers. Now we have shoes made for five bucks selling for two hundred dollars.
The resistance for renewables is control of money. It is easier to control the marketplace when massive plants are required to produce energy. The threat to the monied interests is that small producers (including individual homeowners) can produce energy and erode the monopoly.