1 Unneeded Old Coal Power Plant

Project Plan: Economics For Converting
An Unneeded Coal Power Plant Into A Clean Energy Park

Carbon Capture disposal strata near Lake Michigan.
(1 Gigaton = 1 Billion tons.)

The unneeded power plant your author has in mind is a small single unit coal power plant located over a prime Carbon Capture disposal strata in Michigan.

Pennsylvania State Redevelopment Agency Seeks To Revitalize De-commissioned Power Plants.

An article for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (4/21, Legere) reported that old coal-fired power plants which have been de-commissioned in the last decade because they “couldn’t compete with cheaper energy sources, lower demand and stricter air pollution rules” may find new uses as the result of a redevelopment project administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (PDCED). The agency’s “playbook – the first in a series planned for closed Pennsylvania coal plants – is written to inspire developers’ interest in reusing the shuttered Mitchell site and the surrounding 800 acres of woods and fields mounded with mining waste rock and a coal ash landfill.” PDCED Senior Energy Advisor Denise Brinley is quoted saying, “We want to engage with the development community in a meaningful way and get these sites back into reuse. We have a lot of work to do. There’s a lot of them.” The Post-Gazette added that “in Pennsylvania, 11 power plants have shut down coal-fired generating units since 2010 and another three have converted to run on natural gas.” TRC Companies Plant Redevelopment Specialist Ed Malley “said there is no federal law to keep closed power plants from sitting cold and dark indefinitely,” and he is quoted saying that “the whole thing turns on economics,” adding, “if there is a valuable piece of property that has a power plant on it, chances are that someone will want it. But if the site doesn’t have a lot of value, it is very difficult.”

Michigan State University To Convert Mothballed Power Plant To STEM Learning Center.

The AP (7/15) reports, “Michigan State University plans to turn an old power plant built in the 1940s into a place to learn science, technology, engineering and math.” The school will spend nearly $100 million to renovate the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility, which “will have undergraduate teaching laboratories, project labs and breakout areas. The old plant will include a student commons and gallery.”