No more coal fired power for us.

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New Zealand's largest power station is in our town, and in 2018 the last 2 coal burning generators are being shut down, cutting it's 953 megawatts down to 450 with the gas powered 400 and 50 MW units still running. The 2 large chimneys have dominated the landscape for 40 years, and they will come down too. We might have trouble finding our way home.

Our coal company has gone broke, they have invented a new term but they will still opperate the mines running at a loss, but eventually will shut down...unless they get a buyer.

From the front, today.

2015-08-15%2016.44.13_zpsyqe6qjez.jpg


From the back, a few months ago.

P1070018_zps40f79d2a.jpg
 
The coal fired units were well over their intended lifespan, there were 4 of them, totaling 100MW, the 400MW unit was installed in 2005. It is that small shed to the right, chimney behind the pylon. I guess the whole thing will have to come down, unless they can think of a use for it.
 
Silk, thanks for the update, I've sent parts/tools/expertise over there over the years, it was a sister unit to some of the ones that I looked after (sister as in same parent, and a lot of the internal designs)

Originally Posted By: Silk
The coal fired units were well over their intended lifespan


Standard "lifespan" for a power station is 25 years or 150,000 hours of operation. Unlike when the loons get on the T.V. and complain about what should have been retired, it's merely the number of hours that can reasonably be expected to not have to replace something major.

At high temperatures and pressures (1005F, 2600psi these things tun at), not everything "ages" at the same rate.

The sisters that I babied were retired in excess of 200k hours, and were more reliable at the end than they were for the first decade of their existence...victims of the GFC, and the exodus of making anything in this country.

I had to do replace some stuff, some parts of the pressure piping, and some blades...there was a massive gear change in metallurgical assessment, as things neared their design point, but the big expensive bits would have made another safe 15 years.
 
Coal will slowly disappear everywhere. Natural gas is abundant, cheaper and burns much cleaner. Long before we run out of NG, we'll be on to fusion - which will be close to free electricity generation. That will be a worldwide game changer.
 
Originally Posted By: bigt61
Coal will slowly disappear everywhere. Natural gas is abundant, cheaper and burns much cleaner. Long before we run out of NG, we'll be on to fusion - which will be close to free electricity generation. That will be a worldwide game changer.


LOL...just LOL
 
Originally Posted By: bigt61
Coal will slowly disappear everywhere. Natural gas is abundant, cheaper and burns much cleaner. Long before we run out of NG, we'll be on to fusion - which will be close to free electricity generation. That will be a worldwide game changer.


+1 - Exactly. Coal is a dirty fossil fuel from the actual mines, to danger in the mines for the miners, to the heavy metals put into the air from burning coal. The mercury in the ocean and the swordfish & tuna is from burning coal. The US should put some money aside to provide training opportunities for coal miners loosing their jobs, but we should do everything we can to stop burning and mining coal as quickly as we can.
 
Natural gas is dirt cheap. There is a ton of it. I can't figure out why there are not more Natural Gas cars out there.

It seems to be limited to fleets, and there are very limited areas to fill up.
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
Natural gas is dirt cheap. There is a ton of it. I can't figure out why there are not more Natural Gas cars out there.

It seems to be limited to fleets, and there are very limited areas to fill up.



and this makes me sad.... How Aquila Inc. failed. They basically built 400 MW "peak power plants" around the central part of the country, all natural gas fired. They ended up selling them to local conglomerate power companies, and exited the business.

They were ahead of their time, just never understood how you can make a profit with a "peak" energy center......
 
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Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: bigt61
Coal will slowly disappear everywhere. Natural gas is abundant, cheaper and burns much cleaner. Long before we run out of NG, we'll be on to fusion - which will be close to free electricity generation. That will be a worldwide game changer.


LOL...just LOL
Please elaborate. Fusion is a dream.a step away from perpetual motion. I'm sure NG is greener, but when it screws up...ka-blooey.
 
After the weenies killed coal here they started in on gas pipelines, protesting their expansion and calling gas "another dirty fuel". Without pipeline capacity you can't run big gas plants. Of course, you CAN run a plant formerly fueled by coal on gas, which has stopped many a weenie from doing a victory dance.
One half bleep result of the wennie meddling in pipeline construction is a big city power plant south of here which has gas TRUCKED in to it 24/7. Gas, in tanker trucks, on the city streets, a NIMBY delight.
 
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I work for the 4th largest coal company in the US, an i hate that the environMENTALists are threatening my livelihood. Coal can be a clean fuel but people dont give it a chance. They just shut down a plant by me that just hade the most modern scrubbers installed!

Im all for alternative energy(only an idiot wouldnt be, natural recources WILL runout), but the forms of alternative energy we have now cant hang. Coal and(as much as i hate to say it) gas are needed to bridge the gap untill we get something good enough.
 
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Originally Posted By: camarokiller
I work for the 4th largest coal company in the US, an i hate that the environMENTALists are threatening my livelihood. Coal can be a clean fuel but people dont give it a chance. They just shut down a plant by me that just hade the most modern scrubbers installed!

Im all for alternative energy(only an idiot wouldnt be, natural recources WILL runout), but the forms of alternative energy we have now cant hang. Coal and(as much as i hate to say it) gas are needed to bridge the gap untill we get something good enough.


Obama said if we can put a man on the moon.... we have the technology to make 'clean' coal. Then after the election is was war on the entire coal industry. Lots of your fellow coal workers voted for him. Not trying to start a debate on coal , the president or the EPA.

Even the railroad industry said they are doing less business due to the coal industry in the dog house. EPA will kill off the entire coal industry within 10 years.
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
After the weenies killed coal here they started in on gas pipelines, protesting their expansion and calling gas "another dirty fuel". Without pipeline capacity you can't run big gas plants. Of course, you CAN run a plant formerly fueled by coal on gas, which has stopped many a weenie from doing a victory dance.
One half bleep result of the wennie meddling in pipeline construction is a big city power plant south of here which has gas TRUCKED in to it 24/7. Gas, in tanker trucks, on the city streets, a NIMBY delight.


The "weeniegreenies" work on a feel good ideology called the, "Precautionary Principle" which says if this might happen, let's do this, while dismissing any scientific basis for doing so, or without having any realistic scientific alternatives.

The "weeniegreenies" are ignorant and devoid of any energy education or knowledge of the physical principles of energy production.

Sources with high energy density, such as distributed nuclear reactors, is the answer until solar and wind plants can improve in terms of efficiency and lower cost.

An energy plan, in which you gradually switch over to other forms of energy generation, is the only way to approach energy demand.

Today, one cannot just say, "We will switch over immediately to wind and solar," because the efficiency, cost, and infrastructure is not there.

Ideology is one thing, scientific realism is another.
shocked2.gif
 
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Originally Posted By: JustinH
Natural gas is dirt cheap. There is a ton of it. I can't figure out why there are not more Natural Gas cars out there.

It seems to be limited to fleets, and there are very limited areas to fill up.


Because I'm sure that I am not the only one who thinks about the typical wheel-holding moron pumping high-pressure CNG into a car and just cringes!
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
Natural gas is dirt cheap. There is a ton of it. I can't figure out why there are not more Natural Gas cars out there.

It seems to be limited to fleets, and there are very limited areas to fill up.



Infrastructure holds a lot of it back. Even for industrial applications. My plant has a new process where we take in ~200KCFH of natural gas at ~40psig. We couldn't pull any more off the pipeline if we wanted to.
 
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