Some snark but it turns out two large coal plants are closing. Source: The West’s largest coal-fired power plant is closing. Not even Trump can save it. - The Washington Post In the past three weeks, owners of two of the nation’s biggest coal-fired power plants have announced plans to shut them down, potentially idling hundreds of workers. One plant in Arizona is the largest coal-fired facility in the western United States. . . . The 2,250-megawatt plant has faced increasing financial pressure in the face of record-low natural gas prices, which have made it more expensive to produce electricity at the facility than to purchase it from cheaper sources. . . . And if the owners of coal-fired plants lose money when they operate their facilities, keeping them running makes little economic sense. Bob Wilson
My daughter was at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale for graduate studies, I went to visit, she lived a bit south of the school, the school had a giginamous coal fired heating facility, the road east of the plant had cancer clinics every few feet, I'm so glad she finished schooling l and moved away.
In this case, about 1/2 gallon of water is evaporated per kwh produced. I don't know how that stands among thermal coal plants. Nor compared to gas turbines that do co-generation with their exhaust heat. Would be great if someone compiled this aspect of performance. Electrical power generation that does not heavily compete with agriculture for water would be helpful in some regions.
I recently discovered there's a lignite coal plant less than 50 miles from the Toyota truck plant here in south Texas. San Miguel Lignite Mine
