I would love to see a large commercial greenhouse facility constructed in the area of the natural gas power plant. We could then show how a natural gas power plant can operate at over 90% energy efficiency. The power plant would not emit any exhaust into the atmosphere. The recovered Heat energy would be used to control the environment inside the greenhouses. The recovered water would be treated, nutrients added and be used to irrigate the food bearing plants. The cooled exhaust (CO2) would be analyzed for any unburnt gas matter and then be distributed throughout the greenhouse ranges.
Hundreds of good paying full time jobs will be created for the local community.
Commercial greenhouses next to natural gas power plants are a natural fit. America needs the electricity produced and there is never too much food products produced.
I agree on the wind and solar - they are irrelevant for a project like this, which needs reliable power. This also shows that these facilities will set up their own microgrids and can be self contained with minimal connect to the grid. Thanks for this update.
Yes, Joanna, I think we will see more behind-the-grid microgrids (which may be not-so-micro ke this project). That will mean that the doubling of demand ERCOT says they could see by 2030 is not likely to happen. That is good because residential customers will not be paying for grid expansion for commercial/industrial users. Ed
yes that would be good, but the smaller datacenters will still want to connect to the grid and they are the most lightly to fail when the bubble bursts which is a risk for us all.
Hate that Rick is behind this since he is the one who brought us wind and then solar back in the day and didn't see the consequences down the road. All he saw were dollar signs.
I think the hyperscalers will be the ones ruling the day on this front.
Rick Perry is just like the rest of the grifters. If he can use his wealth of influence to construct a facility of this magnitude it should be done with absolutely no unreliable wind and solar power. He is talking out both sides of his mouth, when he was on the political stage he went around “briefly I’ll add” promoting Alex Epstein’s book Fossil Future. It does an amazing job correctly describing the pitfalls and parasitic effects of wind and solar on grid scale electricity production.
Agree entirely about the wind and solar as well. If the nuclear and gas turbines can’t power the data center by themselves, then that data center is screwed when the sun goes down and the wind stops blowing. They definitely won’t allow that to happen. I can easily see them trashing those plans as time goes on. Still great to see nuclear making a comeback and natural gas helping us get there.
Thanks B Apple. Yes, if the Senate bill tax on wind and solar becomes law, wind and solar will finally wither away quickly. They've done enough damage. The next problem we will see is abandoned wind and solar farms that Texas taxpayers will be forced to pay to dismantle.
Abandonment will be like the 10000 lb elephant in the room everyone that wasn’t on board knew about but the climate catastrophe, save the earth or die narrative and propaganda machine kept hidden like Joe Biden in an ice cream shop.
Looking at the "picture" of the facility on the last page ~ there is a lot of property laid out for solar panels. How many acres were they projecting to build solar on? What really is the cost to build something that big - digging minerals to flipping the switch to on?
I would really like to see a comparison between that and the complete cost of building the natural gas plant. Both over the years will have maintenance costs. What are those costs projected to be?
Yes sunlight is free and so is wind. Natural gas has to be drilled for and pipelined to the power plants site. These costs can be discounted if there happens to already be trunk lines of adequate capacity that can be tapped into.
I am sure that Alex Epstein has already gone through those numbers, but to have them printed out again at this time when America is going to be needing so much new electricity produced. What kind of electricity do we want to invest the money into? Reliable 24/7/365 or What's your best guess for produced power this week?
Sid, as I mentioned in the next-to-last paragraph, I'm guessing that the wind and solar aspects of the project are there for PR purposes and will be eliminated after Trump's Big Beautiful Bill is passed, with provisions to impose a tax on them. Ed
Many, many wind & solar projects are done for a combination of PR & massive subsidies. Thousands of acres of farmland (speaking re: Indiana) and many rural communities have been ruined by these projects and their unscrupulous developers promising buckets of $$ that usually doesn't materialize.
The wind and solar would just be wasted money. The natural gas combined cycle would be a nice to have backup, but with four AP 1000's no backup would be necessary. The refueling cycles of the AP 1000's could be staged to guarantee >99% uptime on at least 75% of the installed capacity. A better idea for fast tracking nuke development would be to designate all of the decommissioned coal plant sites as DOE critical infrastructure sites and fast track a combination of gigawatt scale and SMR scale reactors on each of these sites. These sites already have grid interties and switchyard infrastructure, and sources of cooling water. They are mostly located near load centers, and as brownfield sites there should be no legitimate environmentalist complaints. Locating base load reactors on these sites would enhance grid stability as opposed to the destabilizing wind and solar they are trying to cram on the aging grid. Attached is a Google map with a pin for each of the decommissioned coal sites on the EIA database. You can zoom in on each site and see the switchyard infrastructure, the cooling water source, and the proximity to population/load centers. I added the areas of high average wind speeds and solar irradiance just to demonstrate how remote they are to actual consumption.
We now have sufficient data to know that wind and solar subsidies have been a colossal waste of the taxpayers dime - and credit. Nuclear and natural gas are the future, although coal will remain a significant contributor.
Toshiba canceled its nuclear reactors in Texas in 2018 that was I believe advanced boiling water reactors. I would love to see a combination of nuclear and natural gas for AP 1000 reactors it doesn't sound realistic considering that it cost over 30 billion I think 34 billion to build the two in Georgia at that rate it would take about 60 or 70 years for it to pay off. However with the experience gained in Georgia at Vogal, perhaps cost could be kept under control?? the Chinese have total IP of the AP 1000 reactors and are currently scheduled to build eight more in an addition they have four already built it seems approvement design and the Chinese are getting much better at building the AP 1000s it's almost like we should ask the Chinese to build the ap1000s here in the United States because they know how to do it and can do it cost effectively???
I would love to see a large commercial greenhouse facility constructed in the area of the natural gas power plant. We could then show how a natural gas power plant can operate at over 90% energy efficiency. The power plant would not emit any exhaust into the atmosphere. The recovered Heat energy would be used to control the environment inside the greenhouses. The recovered water would be treated, nutrients added and be used to irrigate the food bearing plants. The cooled exhaust (CO2) would be analyzed for any unburnt gas matter and then be distributed throughout the greenhouse ranges.
Hundreds of good paying full time jobs will be created for the local community.
Commercial greenhouses next to natural gas power plants are a natural fit. America needs the electricity produced and there is never too much food products produced.
I agree on the wind and solar - they are irrelevant for a project like this, which needs reliable power. This also shows that these facilities will set up their own microgrids and can be self contained with minimal connect to the grid. Thanks for this update.
Yes, Joanna, I think we will see more behind-the-grid microgrids (which may be not-so-micro ke this project). That will mean that the doubling of demand ERCOT says they could see by 2030 is not likely to happen. That is good because residential customers will not be paying for grid expansion for commercial/industrial users. Ed
yes that would be good, but the smaller datacenters will still want to connect to the grid and they are the most lightly to fail when the bubble bursts which is a risk for us all.
Hate that Rick is behind this since he is the one who brought us wind and then solar back in the day and didn't see the consequences down the road. All he saw were dollar signs.
I think the hyperscalers will be the ones ruling the day on this front.
Rick Perry is just like the rest of the grifters. If he can use his wealth of influence to construct a facility of this magnitude it should be done with absolutely no unreliable wind and solar power. He is talking out both sides of his mouth, when he was on the political stage he went around “briefly I’ll add” promoting Alex Epstein’s book Fossil Future. It does an amazing job correctly describing the pitfalls and parasitic effects of wind and solar on grid scale electricity production.
Agree entirely about the wind and solar as well. If the nuclear and gas turbines can’t power the data center by themselves, then that data center is screwed when the sun goes down and the wind stops blowing. They definitely won’t allow that to happen. I can easily see them trashing those plans as time goes on. Still great to see nuclear making a comeback and natural gas helping us get there.
Thanks B Apple. Yes, if the Senate bill tax on wind and solar becomes law, wind and solar will finally wither away quickly. They've done enough damage. The next problem we will see is abandoned wind and solar farms that Texas taxpayers will be forced to pay to dismantle.
Abandonment will be like the 10000 lb elephant in the room everyone that wasn’t on board knew about but the climate catastrophe, save the earth or die narrative and propaganda machine kept hidden like Joe Biden in an ice cream shop.
Looking at the "picture" of the facility on the last page ~ there is a lot of property laid out for solar panels. How many acres were they projecting to build solar on? What really is the cost to build something that big - digging minerals to flipping the switch to on?
I would really like to see a comparison between that and the complete cost of building the natural gas plant. Both over the years will have maintenance costs. What are those costs projected to be?
Yes sunlight is free and so is wind. Natural gas has to be drilled for and pipelined to the power plants site. These costs can be discounted if there happens to already be trunk lines of adequate capacity that can be tapped into.
I am sure that Alex Epstein has already gone through those numbers, but to have them printed out again at this time when America is going to be needing so much new electricity produced. What kind of electricity do we want to invest the money into? Reliable 24/7/365 or What's your best guess for produced power this week?
Sid, as I mentioned in the next-to-last paragraph, I'm guessing that the wind and solar aspects of the project are there for PR purposes and will be eliminated after Trump's Big Beautiful Bill is passed, with provisions to impose a tax on them. Ed
Many, many wind & solar projects are done for a combination of PR & massive subsidies. Thousands of acres of farmland (speaking re: Indiana) and many rural communities have been ruined by these projects and their unscrupulous developers promising buckets of $$ that usually doesn't materialize.
The wind and solar would just be wasted money. The natural gas combined cycle would be a nice to have backup, but with four AP 1000's no backup would be necessary. The refueling cycles of the AP 1000's could be staged to guarantee >99% uptime on at least 75% of the installed capacity. A better idea for fast tracking nuke development would be to designate all of the decommissioned coal plant sites as DOE critical infrastructure sites and fast track a combination of gigawatt scale and SMR scale reactors on each of these sites. These sites already have grid interties and switchyard infrastructure, and sources of cooling water. They are mostly located near load centers, and as brownfield sites there should be no legitimate environmentalist complaints. Locating base load reactors on these sites would enhance grid stability as opposed to the destabilizing wind and solar they are trying to cram on the aging grid. Attached is a Google map with a pin for each of the decommissioned coal sites on the EIA database. You can zoom in on each site and see the switchyard infrastructure, the cooling water source, and the proximity to population/load centers. I added the areas of high average wind speeds and solar irradiance just to demonstrate how remote they are to actual consumption.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1QBresJWwMzri0sygk5l-4j01xnP1lXU&ll=37.796809024153326%2C-95.35569428737948&z=5
We now have sufficient data to know that wind and solar subsidies have been a colossal waste of the taxpayers dime - and credit. Nuclear and natural gas are the future, although coal will remain a significant contributor.
Toshiba canceled its nuclear reactors in Texas in 2018 that was I believe advanced boiling water reactors. I would love to see a combination of nuclear and natural gas for AP 1000 reactors it doesn't sound realistic considering that it cost over 30 billion I think 34 billion to build the two in Georgia at that rate it would take about 60 or 70 years for it to pay off. However with the experience gained in Georgia at Vogal, perhaps cost could be kept under control?? the Chinese have total IP of the AP 1000 reactors and are currently scheduled to build eight more in an addition they have four already built it seems approvement design and the Chinese are getting much better at building the AP 1000s it's almost like we should ask the Chinese to build the ap1000s here in the United States because they know how to do it and can do it cost effectively???