The role of natural gas in a clean energy future has been widely debated due to concerns over life-cycle carbon emissions and perceptions that relying on natural gas as a “bridge fuel” is short-sighted and reduces investment in clean energy. A study published in the journal Science concluded methane leaks from the production and piping of natural gas were underestimated and could be large enough to undermine the carbon reduction benefits compared to coal. Recent utility developments have highlighted the competition between renewables and natural gas:
- Faced with a capacity shortage as a result of the retirement of the 2,200 MW San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS), the California Public Utilities Commission issued a procurement decision which included a provision for new natural-gas fired power plants. The decision was criticized by environmental and renewable industry organizations who advocated for including only carbon-free energy sources.
- Plans to construct a natural gas power plant to replace the Salem Harbor coal power station was challenged in court by environmental groups who argued the plant would prevent the state of Massachusetts from meeting emissions targets in its Global Warming Solutions Act. The lawsuit resulted in a settlement that stipulates the new gas-fired plant must reduce its carbon emissions by 2026.
But are we overlooking opportunities for synergistic benefits of natural gas with renewables? That was the focus of a February 2014 report by the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis which explored the potential business cases for complementary natural gas and renewable energy. Flexible natural gas-fired power plants can help integrate higher percentages of wind and solar because they provide dispatchable capacity that can rapidly adjust output to balance electric system loads. Hybrid energy systems where natural gas capacity is co-located alongside wind or solar sources could allow power producers to guarantee firm, reliable electricity delivery.
Are natural gas and renewables necessarily competitive, or should they be viewed as complementary? How can energy policy and electricity markets capitalize on potential synergistic benefits? What effect could this approach have on the development of a low carbon energy system?
First, your abbreviated comment may give a misleading impression of the study cited from Science. The release notes this: “Recent life cycle assessments generally agree that replacing coal with natural… Read more »
Lewis, you are exactly right about the exact conclusions of the report. However, when picked up on some media sites, the assertion that methane leaks may be underestimated was highlighted… Read more »
Dawn, re: “In countries where feed-in-tariffs give wind and solar an advantage ….” FITs don’t give wind and solar an advantage. That is, they do not reduce the high cost of… Read more »
Lewis: The question is not whether natural gas (NG) has less climate impact than coal. The question is how do we supply energy without putting an undue burden on future… Read more »
Dan, the first question raised by Dawn was whether NG fueled power plants could facilitate the adoption of solar and wind power as part of the mix. The answer to… Read more »
Lewis: I agree that NG can play a role in supporting renewables by helping fill transients through fast dispatch response. However, I am skeptical that increasing extraction of NG will… Read more »
Because renewable energy production peaks are generally earlier in the diurnal cycle than peak electric demand, and earlier in the seasonal cycle than peak electric demand, some other sources of… Read more »
Natural gas and renewable energy are already intertwined in many aspects. But in regard to the prior comments, geothermal, marine energy and hydropower, concentrated solar (with thermal storage) and biomass… Read more »
Are a broken leg and a crutch synergistic? If so, then yes, natural gas can be the crutch to the broken leg of intermittent power sources that lack sufficient storage… Read more »
Ike, Thank you for returning the discussion to the realm of common sense. The best I can do is offer support for your points. It seems this former Merchant Mariner and the… Read more »
Natural gas can be very sympathetic, especially if used as fill in for thermal solar plants. However the down side environmental risks are very large. With a methane to CO2… Read more »
America’s requirements for electrical energy are not going away anytime soon. Our population is increasing, and even with EV’s becoming much more popular, the electricity at the outlet has to… Read more »
I will attempt to summarize some of the points made thus far and provide additional context. 1. Carbon emissions from natural gas over the short and long-term: Several comments addressed… Read more »
Dawn & All, Why are we not concerned with human poverty and its causes? No economy can lift itself from poverty and remain prosperous, absent reliable low cost energy. How can… Read more »
Jack – your comments is what a lot of developing nations are saying about the U.S. – we developed our prosperity using coal and are now telling other nations not… Read more »
Dawn said, “Notably, the U.S. military is actively deploying microgrids that integrate renewables because it provides energy security.” Please substantiate your claim for military microgrids increasing energy security with some… Read more »
Ike, I have looked at reports by Navigant Research on military microgrids. The energy security issue relates to having to acquire and transport fuel for operations and as such, cost… Read more »
Dawn, I am using “energy security” in the military sense which is “assured access to energy.” Cost is only part of that consideration. That being said, your example of a… Read more »
I would like to see the federal government mandate a study by the U.S. electric power industry, possibly managed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), to examine the feasibility… Read more »
Henry: The entire nation of Germany is your ultimate case study. Their top-down mandated Energiewende campaign to adopt renewable energy has been paid for by extracting more than $100 billion… Read more »
Ike: There is a policy that will dramatically reduce carbon emissions without the problems you cite in Germany’s case. With a “Clean Energy Credit” policy, a rising price is put… Read more »
Dan, Are you being facetious, or do you really not understand the dependence of the fiscal economy upon the energy economy? That if you raise energy prices with a tax,… Read more »
Ike: Are you not aware that the fiscal economy depends on having a livable climate? I assume — but I hope I’m wrong — that you do not believe that… Read more »
Ike: Thanks very much for pointing out the cost of Germany’s renewable energy program. However, you are ignoring the future costs of global warming to society, and not attempting to… Read more »
Henry, I agree with your thoughts for a study that looks at the cost implications of phasing out coal and moving toward 100 percent renewables (or other target). EPRI would… Read more »
Henry and Dan, I am certainly not ignoring climate risk or the associated costs. In fact I pointed out how Germany’s policies are making the problem worse by increasing CO2… Read more »
Well, I seem to be getting rocks thrown at my statements from both sides of the argument. Good, they were well placed. First of all, Captain Kiefer, thank you for… Read more »
The EDF and the NRDC have both issued reports that say the gas industry can curb their methane emissions considerably with expenditure equal to 1% of the industries’ capital expenditure.… Read more »
Are natural gas and renewables necessarily competitive, or should they be viewed as complementary? I’m going to digress a bit here. I think all the answers posted weigh-in the no-single-answer-is-right… Read more »
Jack: Providing the poor with electricity will do no good if you destroy the climate in the process. Having electric lights but not enough food or fresh water is not… Read more »
Dan, Using hyperbole and false assertions, like the oceans will rise by 1-5 meters in the next hundred years (the truth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_sea_level_rise) is NOT helping the environmental cause. Using phrases like… Read more »
I’ve come late to this rather large party and have the advantage of reading the sizable number of cogent, and in one or two cases, not-so-cogent comments. One glaring absence… Read more »
Joel, I always appreciate your ability to get straight to the point. I agree that reasonable regulations could address many of the leak issues. As the Science publication noted, a… Read more »
Joel said: “I would invite you to research the history of London during the Industrial Revolution: people routinely dropped dead from breathing that coal-polluted atmosphere.” As in most things, the… Read more »
Ike,
Well said, and well researched. thank you.
I would like to draw everyone’s attention to an article posted yesterday that directly relates to our discussion here: Shale Gas Boom Leaves Wind Companies Seeking More Subsidy The wind… Read more »
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378775312014759 Ike, I do love the idea of spreading ‘pixie dust’. My little granddaughters would think that especially fine! And I love the stories from London. The King instituted a… Read more »
Jane, You provide some numbers from the Kempton report. I could begin by impeaching the source (the authors, 1. used 1-hr resolution for modeling renewable output when such output can… Read more »
I would agree that if you can only get up to 99.9% of demand hours with overbuilt capacity is unacceptable in the U.S. for both reliability and economic reasons. A… Read more »
Dawn, To complement your Italian wind data variability graph, here is one for California that shows that even geographically dispersed intermittent resources do not deliver stable or reliable power production.… Read more »
Ike, great graphs that add well to this discussion. I definitely wasn’t denigrating Rankine cycle. As you note, the addition of a heat recovery steam generator and steam turbine to… Read more »
Dawn, I have read the article … and there are also a lot of other opinions out there …. Untapped offshore wind energy in the U.S. could provide for the… Read more »
Jane, there is a whole range of time between when peaking plants come online (in the U.S. typically served by simple cycle gas turbines with efficiency in the 30-35% range… Read more »
Joel Brown said, “BTW, our national wealth wasn’t built on cheap coal, it was built on cheap oil.” History begs to disagree. Oil did not supersede coal as the leading… Read more »
Ike, In terms of dollar cost to the US consumers, oil products expense is north of $750 billion a year while coal is only $35 billion. So yes, cheap coal.… Read more »
The end of cheap oil happened in 1919, 1934, 1979, and 2008. And in between were bathtub curves of enduring low oil prices. Oil prices peaked far higher in 1859… Read more »
I do not understand much of this discussion, because, although I understand the major sources of electrical power in the USA are Coal, Natural gas, and Nuclear energy, I have not… Read more »
Wayne, I would suggest you look at EIA data (for U.S.) as they have the most complete data for energy use across various categories and have nifty graphing tools for… Read more »
Dawn & Ike … My comment was a response to the article Dawn suggested we read was meant to refute the conclusion that renewables, wind in particular, were dead without… Read more »
Jane, my issue with that type of study is it does not consider reliability constraints or outages. The 99.9% of hours would be unacceptable in the U.S. which has a… Read more »
Dawn, Real time … The model used hourly meteorological data from 135 stations over 4 years. Don’t think it could be done real-time …. I am not sure what you… Read more »
Jane – I think our debate here really gets into the topic of the discussion on synergies. So let me try and be clearer about some of my statements: Real-time:… Read more »
Ike, Thank you again! Your April 10, posting, and the illustrations hit the nail squarely on the head. Forcing the use of wind and solar will diminish the reliability of electrical… Read more »
Dawn, thanks for asking an interesting question. Very lively discussion. I’m going to rephrase the question to look at a possible answer in a different way. First, some context. One… Read more »
Dave, very good comments. I agree with your thoughts in terms of reframing the discussion to look at least cost solutions to decarbonize the energy system. I think most of… Read more »
Dawn, Yes the discussion was raised as a question of synergies. My point is that very little ‘synergy’ is needed if we can almost fill the bill for electricity generation… Read more »
Since we had such an energetic discussion about whether high levels of renewable energies can actually be achieved … I just wanted to post this PS … and article I… Read more »
Jane – thanks for posting the article. There are a couple of points I would make on the article, which merit consideration. One is that the examples of high renewables… Read more »
I would hope that use of natural gas for utilities is not frustrated by ideological differences. It is better for the environment and will generate ( excuse the pun) much less… Read more »