INTERVIEW-FPL sees renewables soon competitive with coal

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2622341420070926

INTERVIEW-FPL sees renewables soon competitive with coal

Wed Sep 26, 2007 8:18pm BST

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Power generation from low-carbon energy sources like wind, solar and nuclear should soon become competitive with electricity generated by coal, the cheapest of fossil fuels, the chief executive of FPL Group Inc. (FPL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday.

FPL said on Wednesday it will spend $1.5 billion aimed at building solar thermal energy in Florida, California or other states. It is part of a larger $2.4 program aimed at cutting emissions of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, including a more efficient power network.

The company is already the largest U.S. wind power producer.

...

Hay said FPL will build at least 300 megawatts of solar thermal in Florida, which will help the state reach new goals on renewables outlined by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist. Unlike photovoltaic rooftop solar energy that converts sunlight into power, solar thermal generates electricity by converting solar energy to heat to drive a thermal power plant. The other 200 MW will be built in California or other states.

...

The solar thermal project in Florida, which will start as a 10 MW pilot project at one of its power plants in the state, will eventually grow to become the largest solar plant in the state, the fourth most populous in the country. And he expects to make the company a top U.S. solar producer.

"Just as we started out being relatively small in wind power, as we built up expertise in wind and we were able to work with suppliers to drive down the cost, we hope to do the same thing in solar."

[NNadir]

1. My perception is that I have been hearing this at least 10 times - often more - a year for 40 years.

[hunter]

2. "Competitive" with coal...

...that gets it wrong right from the start.

Coal is a kind of robbery, we are destroying the well-being of the earth for an imaginary profit. It's like saying that organic farming will soon be competitive with mugging people on the streets.

In any case, it's always a pilot project...

I was walking around inside Solar One, another 10 megawatt pilot project, more than 25 years ago... (The SoCalEd rep was an intriguing woman, I've always wondered what happened to her, but I don't remember her name.)



The SMUD solar plant at Rancho Seco is 21 years old. The ARCO solar plants at the Carrissa Plain and Hesperia have been dismantled. I worked on those.

http://www.gosolarcalifornia.ca.gov/solar101/history.html

I'm not an optimist at this point. The only thing that will make renewables competitive with coal will be the prohibition of coal mining, and I'm all for that. If we simply stop using coal as an energy source the world will be a much better place.

[philb]

3. Nuclear plant FPL is planning to build is a bit larger than 10MW

[losthills]

4. Got a problem here....

"low-carbon energy sources like wind, solar and nuclear "

Green washing nuclear power doesn't wash. It's not renewable, it is not "low carbon," and there is no level on which it should be included with wind and solar. Wind and Solar do not represent a threat to future generations' health and safety, or cause environmental degradation as nuclear power does. And wind and solar are renewable, whereas nuclear power is not.

They don't belong in the same sentence together...