The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia
Saturday, 13 April 2024 06:34

Momentum builds slowly for TVA’s post-coal plans

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Spherical tokamak plasma turbulenceSupercomputer simulation of plasma turbulence in a spherical tokamak, which is an experimental machine designed to harness the energy of fusion.  Image courtesy of Walter Guttenfelder, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Filippo Scotti, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via DOE.

Fusion research, natural gas, solar power and battery improvements at heart of TVA’s plans to wean itself off coal

OAK RIDGE — The Tennessee Valley Authority is phasing out coal and announcing developments tied to other energy sources at two plants that sit on either side of Oak Ridge.

One of the options includes a fusion test site. Scientists have long pursued fusion energy, though the technology remains in infancy and has yet to generate electricity anywhere.

The TVA coal plant on Edgemoor Road in the Claxton community in Anderson County closed Dec. 1 last year. TVA remains uncommitted to any plans for most of the land around the plant. A company recently announced, however, that it plans tests connected to fusion power in a small part of one of Bull Run’s old buildings by 2028. It will be an experiment and not generate power directly.

Meanwhile, TVA plans to retire Kingston Fossil Plant on Swan Pond Road in Harriman by the end of 2027. Its nine coal-fired units power about 818,000 homes. To replace the power generated at the plant, TVA plans to build a new complex at the Kingston plant’s site, combining natural gas, solar power and battery storage.

TVA plans to retire all its coal plants by the 2030s.

Solar and gas in Kingston

TVA stated in a news release it plans to build an energy complex to house at least 1,500 megawatts of combined cycle and dual-fuel aeroderivative natural gas combustion turbines with 100 megawatts of battery storage and up to four megawatts of solar generation at the Kingston plant’s location. It announced this decision April 2, though TVA had been discussing the idea of using gas or solar to replace Kingston Fossil Plant’s energy generation in earlier public events.

The natural gas plant on the site will start generating power before TVA retires the coal plant, but the announcement did not give a date. TVA stated this start with natural gas will “maintain reliable, uninterrupted power to our customers.”

“Kingston is, and has been, a part of the success of this region over the last 70 years,” said TVA President and CEO Jeff Lyash. “Retiring these units and replacing them with technology that is more reliable, more resilient, and cleaner is not an easy decision, but it’s the right thing to do for our energy security going forward.”

Environmentalists have raised concerns about TVA transitioning from coal to gas rather than focusing on renewables, storage and efficiency.

“Natural gas does pollute less than coal, but that’s a low bar,” said Chelsea Bowling, staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center regarding TVA’s use of natural gas in Kingston and elsewhere to generate power.

“These projects do not serve as a bridge. What they do is tie us up for years, even decades, on unsustainable natural gas,” said Dana Moran of the Sierra Club.

The Environmental Protection Agency said in a letter dated March 25 it had issues with TVA’s environmental impact statement for its natural gas plant. These criticisms include that it “underestimates GHG (greenhouse gas) and criterial pollutant emissions, fails to consider a reasonable range of feasible alternatives including more environmentally protective alternatives that do not lock-in fossil fuel generation, and inadequately considers impacts on communities with environmental justice concerns.”

TVA however, maintains it addressed the EPA’s concerns in an updated Environmental Impact Statement. In its own news release TVA has promoted and defended its desire to combine gas with solar to replace coal.

“This is the evolution of our energy system,” said TVA senior vice president for Power Operations Allen Clare about the future Kingston solar, gas and battery complex. “This energy complex is the most cost-effective option that offers the flexibility and reliability within the timeline to bring replacement generation online.”

Fusion experiments at Bull Run

Type One Energy said its facility at Bull Run, to be called Infinity One, will not be a “nuclear device” and won’t generate power or have radioactive materials on site during its construction. Instead, it will test technology that can help build future fusion reactors. These reactors, possibly built elsewhere, may generate power in the future.

The company said construction of Infinity One could begin in 2025, following the completion of necessary environmental reviews, partnership agreements, required permits and operating licenses. Type One expects to complete its construction in 2028. TVA media relations specialist Scott Brooks said it will be in the former turbine building.

Brooks said it won’t interfere with TVA’s possible plans to use that turbine building for a synchronous condenser, a device which could help keep the power level generated by the overall grid steady without generating any power of its own. He said it also wouldn’t affect any of the other ideas TVA has floated for the rest of the site like a data center, industry, a battery, solar panels, parks or bike trails. TVA has also said it will take down other structures on the site, including the landmark smokestack.

Fusion involves merging atomic nuclei together to generate electricity. It is different from fission plants, which split them apart, as at TVA’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. Currently, no fusion plant is connected to an electric grid. TVA continues to pursue unrelated plans for fission plants, however, including a possible small new fission plant in Oak Ridge, unconnected to the Bull Run site.

TVA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are partnering on the new experimental fusion site at Bull Run to test aspects related to a specific type of fusion reactor, the high field stellarator fusion pilot plant, related to operating efficiency, reliability, maintainability and affordability. Type One Energy also stated the Infinity One facility may go to the Department of Energy in later years.

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Last modified on Thursday, 18 April 2024 23:16