A coal plant in South Texas will shut down and convert to solar + battery power, with the help of a $1.4 billion grant from the US Department of Agriculture aimed at helping clean up electricity while saving rural jobs.
The grant will go to San Miguel Electric Cooperative Inc (SMECI) which is headquartered in Atascosa County, Texas, south of San Antonio, and serves 340,000 customers in 47 counties in South Texas.
SMECI has operated the lignite mouth mining industry (named for the proximity of the mine it supplies) since 1982. This facility is located in the city of Christine, Texas, population 337.
But that coal-fired plant is one of the dirtiest in Texas. It is the fourth largest mercury polluter in the state, producing 12 times more mercury than allowed by the new EPA rule.
It also has two coal ash ponds on site that seep into local waters and create the most polluted groundwater in the country. Here's an excerpt from Earthjustice's 2022 report that analyzed pollution from coal plants:
Many components have been found in concentrations exceeding the relevant limits since the start of monitoring in 2018—in sources both upstream and downstream from CCR units. These components include arsenic (up to 7 times the Maximum Contamination Level (MCL)), beryllium (up to 112 times the MCL), boron (up to 28 times the daily children's health advisory -10), cadmium (up to 83 times the MCL), cobalt (up to 360 times the default GWPS in the CCR Rule), lithium (up to 82 times its default GWPS), selenium (up to 16 times the MCL), and radium (up to 6 times the MCL).
–Covering Toxic, Widespread Failure of the Power Industry to Clean Up Coal Ash DumpsEarthjustice, 2022
In particular, note that the coal plant led 360x as much cobalt as is allowed in the groundwater protection standard – a feature people often associate with electric car batteries, but is also present in many fossil fueled applications (oil refining, for one).
So, moving from this coal plant to a cleaner option would be a huge achievement, given how much pollution there is in the area.
In September, SMECI was selected as a finalist for the new USDA “Empowering Rural America” grant, and this week, it was officially selected as one of the areas to receive part of the grant, along with 9 others. SMECI received the bulk of the $4.37 billion grant, with other sites receiving grants in the hundreds of millions.
In total, the grants will support 5,000 jobs and reduce climate pollution by 11 million tons per year, according to the USDA. The SMECI grant will reduce air pollution by 1.8 million tonnes, as it will take 446,000 cars off the road, and support around 600 jobs.
The grant money will be used to convert the plant from coal power to solar and battery storage. Solar is an abundant resource in sunny South Texas, and the plant already has a grid connection to make this easier to install than using new transmission lines.
But not only that, the capacity of the site will see a significant improvement. The current coal plant can produce up to 410 megawatts of power, but the upcoming solar plant will be able to generate 600 MW – almost half as much as its previous capacity.
And pairing this solar power with grid-tied batteries will help make the grid more resilient, too. Thermal power plants often take time to turn off and on, which means it's more difficult to manage unexpected peaks and troughs in electricity demand – plus, industrial equipment tends to wear out when it heats up and cools down too much, contributing to higher costs. coal power. There have been many studies showing that new solar plants are cheaper than old coal – and that's even ignoring external factors.
Although solar power is often considered temporary – you are at the mercy of the sun, after all – batteries can solve that problem. These batteries can help smooth out peaks and troughs in generation and demand, and can be sent to the grid in milliseconds, to better match supply to demand. They can also be used for energy arbitrage, charging when supply is in excess and discharging when demand is high.
While there is no timeline announced yet for when the industry will complete its transformation, SMECI will develop a Community Benefits Program within the next year as part of the grant process.
Once the transition is complete, Texas will be left with 14 coal plants. In 2023, Texas produced 71GWh of electricity from coal, down from 157GWh in 2011. Electricity production in the province was 37.2% coal in 2000, and 13.1% in 2023.
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