World’s First Solar-Coal Hybrid Power Plant
In an attempt to simultaneously save the environment and prove that opposites attract, Xcel Energy and Abengoa Solar have joined forces to produce the world’s first hybrid solar-coal power plant.
Located near Grand Junction, Colorado, the $4.5 million Colorado Integrated Solar Project intends to show that solar power can reduce the negative ecological impact of coal-fired power plants, considered to be the dirtiest of dirty power.
For a basic explanation on the seemingly complicated process, we defer to the good folks over at Earth & Industry:
In a traditional coal-fired power plant, coal that has been pulverized into a fine dust is burned to heat water until it becomes steam. The steam then turns the blades of a large turbine, which turns the generator and produces electricity. But if the fresh water is heated before it enters the boiler, less coal is needed in order to make the steam—and that is the principal behind Xcel’s Energy brand new solar-coal hybrid power plant in western Colorado.
No official word yet on a whether or not the obvious names for the new technology—be it “coalar” or “soal”—will take off.
One thing’s for sure—some environmental outlets consider the energy marriage to be a bit like putting lipstick on a pig.
According to Energy Wise:
As NASA scientist and leading climate expert James Hansen writes in his recent book Storms of My Grandchildren, “If we want to solve the climate problem, we must phase out coal emissions. Period.”
Hansen and others have shown that only if global coal emissions are completely phased out by 2030 could atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide be stabilized at between 400 and 425 ppm (which certainly seems unlikely from our current level of about 392 ppm), most likely averting some of the more dire climate scenarios. The U.S. currently gets about half of its electricity generation from coal; we better get started if we want that 2030 target to be remotely realistic.