The Future According to Deminion

It is the best option according to the rules...not what is best to the locale.

The moral of this story they want the utilities to borrow money or go into the bond market…they’d prefer the equipment you buy don’t work. They just want you to borrow and borrow and borrow with no need to do good. 

Dominion outlines new power plan

Three of the plans would result in retirements of coal capacity, including units three and four of the Chesterfield Power Station, the utility’s largest coal-fired generating plant, along with two more in Mecklenburg County and one in York County.

• The cheapest alternative involves adding 4,000 megawatts of utility-scale solar, which would require land space almost as large as the city of Richmond and cost an additional $4.3 billion. The plan also calls for additional natural gas generation as a backup for peak periods, since solar energy isn’t always reliable and currently can’t be stored.

• Converting coal plants to use natural gas for one-quarter of their electricity production (co-firing plants) while also ramping up solar and natural gas would cost about $5 billion more but would increase even further the company’s reliance on natural gas.

• Adding a third nuclear reactor at the North Anna plant in Louisa County would reduce carbon emissions more than any other option, but at $7.2 billion it would cost about 67 percent more than the solar option

• Focusing on offshore wind would cost $15.3 billion, a price that all but takes that plan off the table unless Dominion can find a way to reduce costs. The company recently delayed plans to install offshore turbines as a test case when the price was nearly double the company’s $230 million estimate.

Dominion weighs each of the options based on growing demand and reliability as well as cost.

“Utility-scale solar looks very good to us. It’s the lowest-cost deal, but there’s a lot of analysis to be done, so it’s not a done deal yet,” Wohlfarth said.

Environmental groups have called on Dominion to rely on renewable energy such as solar and wind power to meet the growth in demand, which is expected to be about 1.5 percent per year.

“If Dominion were looking out for the best interests of Virginians, it would prioritize aggressive investments in solar, energy efficiency and offshore wind and stop doubling down on dirty fracked

gas,” said Mike Tidwell, director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.