Will wind and photo voltaic power destroy hydroelectric energy in Washington state? – Are you completed with that?
By CFACT
By David Wojick
There is an avalanche of planned wind and solar projects across America. The idea is to replace fossil fuel electricity, which is the predominant source of energy in most places. Some states even have corresponding laws.
Aside from being an impossible goal, it's interesting, even amusing, to see how this avalanche could play out in Washington state. Most of their electricity comes from hydropower, but wind and solar energy are on the verge of destroying that too. This is a goal that loses its way!
I became aware of the avalanche several years ago when PJM, the country's largest electric grid operator, announced that the company was inundated with requests for wind and solar connections. The combined MW of the application queue actually exceeded the peak demand of PJM.
At the time it seemed unbelievable, but today it is clear that this fiasco is nationwide. People are competing to build more generation capacity than can even be used. That's certainly enough to eliminate most of the existing generation.
This happens because wind and solar energy usually come with so-called “take-or-pay contracts”. If the utility doesn't buy the electricity, they still have to pay for the generator, so there's a huge incentive to use that electricity instead of another source.
That brings us to Washington state, where nearly 70% of electricity comes from hydroelectric power. Much of this is thanks to federal containment of the mighty Columbia River and its tributaries. The big gun here is the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which operates 31 dams up to the massive 6,800 MW Grand Coulee. But a number of state and local governments also operate large-scale hydroelectric power.
I don't have specific data for Washington as a whole, but there is no doubt that the wind and solar avalanche is underway there. BPA, for example, speaks of “exploding inquiries” in its 2023 annual report and says the following:
“Under the Evolving Grid umbrella, we are reforming our process to address skyrocketing grid demand. Our goal is to move from a first-come/first-served approach, where requests are examined individually in the order they are received, to a first-come/first-served cluster study approach for large generator interconnection requests. “
This is in fact the same change that PJM made to handle the incredible queue of requests.
Then there is the regional planning group NorthernGrid, whose region covers much of Washington. This is what they report in their latest study:
“-NorthernGrid's total footprint, non-coincident peak load, is 61,867 MW in July
— 2,611 MW closures are planned
— There are 72,099 MW of planned generation expansion.”
The planned new generation, which consists almost entirely of wind and solar energy, far exceeds peak demand. Clearly this applies to Washington State as a whole.
What's really funny is that they don't mention BPA, which is certainly a biggest threat to their power supply business. But this is a Biden-Harris federal agency, so maybe “mom” is the right word for now.
Of course, electricity consumers in Washington state are completely in the dark about the impending avalanche of what will certainly be expensive electricity. I can find no mention of this obvious threat.
There are many reasons to curb the rapid growth of wind and solar energy. Problems such as unreliability, excessive costs and environmental degradation. None of this is funny. But the idea that one form of renewable energy (wind and solar) could displace another (hydropower) is laughably stupid.
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