Greater Midwest region would fare among best under transition to clean energy future
The U.S. region consisting of Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia would fare among the best of all the major sections of the U.S. under a transition to a clean-energy electricity future, according to an analysis released by Synapse Energy Economics Inc., for the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (CSI) think tank.
The Synapse/CSI report outlines a transition to healthier, safer power industry nationwide and provides details on what this transition might look like in the Greater Midwest and the rest of the U.S. The benefits of this transition for the Midwest include significantly reduced air pollution from the retirement of all coalfired generation and the potential to become a global leader in clean electricity technologies, especially wind power, which would account for more than a third of regional electricity generation.
Grant Smith, energy advisor to the Civil Society Institute, said: “The Midwest is at a crossroads today.
While the electric power industry remains obsessed with such dirty and needlessly expensive 19th and 20th century ‘business as usual’ solutions as coal-fired and nuclear power, there is an opportunity today to make the transition without multi-billion dollar gambles on unproven carbon capture and sequestration technology and risky nuclear loan-guarantee bailouts. In the wake of the failed federal action on climate legislation, leadership from the states is even more important. The Synapse Energy Economics report shows that a clean energy future is within our grasp. It will take political will and leadership from outside Washington.”
Geoff Keith, researcher and associate, Synapse Energy Economics Inc., said: “Our analysis shows that the Midwest could reduce air pollution and other environmental impacts dramatically, take huge strides toward mitigating climate change and become a global leader in clean energy production. And with its massive wind resource and skilled workforce, the region would be an attractive location for manufacturers of wind turbines and related components, one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S.”
Key aspects of the report’s “Transition Scenario” include the following:
• All coal-fired capacity is retired 137,000 (MW) of coal.
• Over 80,000 MWs of wind capacity are added, generating 330 TWh in 2050, or 36 percent of total regional generation.
• Cleaner natural gas-fired generation increases by 112 TWh (nearly 140 percent). This is greater than the increase expected under the status quo (74 percent). However in the Transition Scenario, much of this new gas-fired generation takes place at combined heat and power (CHP) facilities, and thus it reduces fuel use in other sectors.
• Generation from biomass increases by 129 TWh (16 percent). This is less aggressive use of biomass than under BAU, in which biomass generation grows by 21 percent.
The path outlined in the Synapse/CSI analysis report also would mean cleaner air in the Midwest and dramatically reduced with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the electric sector down by more than 90 percent, compared to a 29 percent increase for the region under status quo trends. Similarly, toxic mercury emissions would fall 100 percent, compared to a much higher level under the status quo. Water consumption by power plants also would fall considerably.
