Maybe Natural Gas Plants are not the Bridge to Clean Energy

Whether you are fully onboard or not, one thing we can all agree on is that global warming, if true, is bad.  Very bad, especially for us emergency preparedness folks who are faced with the prospect of more frequent and severe storms going forward.  This is why I applaud efforts to develop and mandate clean energy goals, because in theory these efforts could help stop the bleeding so to speak.  And when it comes to clean energy, conventional wisdom says that natural gas plants will play a large role.

The Evolving Role of Natural Gas Plants for Clean Energy

The role of natural plants in the context of clean energy seems to be evolving.  To date, natural gas plants have been thought of as a bridge between declining coal-fired and nuclear plants and emerging renewable energy sources.  But alas, this seems to be changing for a few reasons:

• Technological innovation has reduced the costs of solar power and wind energy faster than expected.
• Emerging technologies around energy storage increase the viability and stability of renewables, reducing the need for the fuel flexibility that natural gas provides.
• The cost of natural gas is more volatile than the costs associated with clean energy.
• Research has revealed that natural gas is not as clean as previously thought due to methane emissions, reducing its advantage over coal.
• New construction of gas fired plants is becoming increasingly difficult, because more regulators and environmentalists are pushing back on new construction, and the risk profile of these types of plants is growing because the emergence of clean energy technology could render them financially inefficient before the end of their life cycles.

For a technical overview of these and other insights regarding the potentially declining relevance of natural gas plants, click here.

The bottom line is that natural gas plants may not be as important to the clean energy revolution as previously thought.  This is clearly bad for gas-fired plant owners, but definitely good for climate change mitigation efforts.