Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Graph of the Day: Virginia CO2 Emissions

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

Source: The Commonwealth of Virginia’s 2022 Energy Plan

For the record: Virginia’s electric utility sector reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 43% between 2010 and 2020. Globally, CO2 emissions continued to increase during that decade.

The vast majority of the decline can be attributed to the shift from coal- to gas-fired generation. As of December 2021, only 3% of the state’s power supply came from “intermittent” (wind and solar) energy sources.

Virginia gets only 11% of its electricity from coal now, which means that the displacement of coal is mostly spent as a source of additional CO2 reductions. To reach the goal of zero carbon emissions by mid-century, the bulk of future cuts must come from replacing natural gas with wind and solar. The unresolved questions: How much will that cost and how will the shift impact reliability?

— JAB

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

16 responses to “Graph of the Day: Virginia CO2 Emissions”

  1. Ben Slone Avatar
    Ben Slone

    Some SMRs at the 11% coal sites will help with the continued decrease.

  2. Lefty665 Avatar
    Lefty665

    “the bulk of future cuts must come from replacing natural gas with wind and solar.”

    and Nuclear??

    1. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      I hope so.

      1. Lefty665 Avatar
        Lefty665

        Me too. I lived within siren distance of North Anna for about 25 years. After TMI woke VEPCO up and they realized they needed to pay attention to what they were doing they were good neighbors. I would not have lived that close to a coal plant.

        1. WayneS Avatar
          WayneS

          Here is another graph from the 2022 Virginia Energy Report:

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65b0ee65ee0aad98b959d94e9d240f15722ce2b212572c175e36bd04338d5eec.jpg

          In addition to being “green”, nuclear energy is also more reliable than any other method of generating electricity.

          1. Lefty665 Avatar
            Lefty665

            Interesting numbers. You have any idea what brings natural gas, coal and hydro %s down?

  3. David Wojick Avatar
    David Wojick

    The cost of net zero juice is actually not a question because the storage required is impossible. Therefore the interesting question is how and when this impossibility will manifest itself.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      no more or less “impossible” than SMRs or hydrogen though… It’s all technology that is evolving and breakthroughs do occur.

    2. Lefty665 Avatar
      Lefty665

      I wonder about mechanical methods like pumped storage, flywheels and the like. Batteries ain’t the only way to do it, but there’s nothing magic on the horizon.

      The new generation of small nuclear plants also have potential. They don’t seem to get much love from zero emissions advocates.

  4. energyNOW_Fan Avatar
    energyNOW_Fan

    Keep in mind Virginia typically imports a lot of electricity (not sure latest figures) so our carbon “footprint” is probably bigger than the in-state boundary CO2. True for most northeast states (power importers) except Pa, WV, probably OH, and of course Canada as exporters for those lucky enough to get that cheap Canada Hydro.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      and as such, such graphs and charts are really not much good and seem to be used more to buttress some other point.

  5. William Chambliss Avatar
    William Chambliss

    The reductions discussed in the article occurred prior to the enactment of the Virginia Clean Economy Act. The major prior enactment of the GA in this area is the 2007 Virginia Re-regulation Act. That was the measure that introduced the “Rate Adjustment Clause” as a ratemaking alternative and proposed providing utilities with additional profits for building new generation sources in Virginia. The bonuses, however, were not limited to construction IN VIRGINIA, so Appalachian Power got a boost for acquiring a gas fired plant in Ohio. The main beneficiary was, of course, Dominion, which not only built a coal-fired plant in Wise County, hundreds of miles from its service territory, but also 5 new gas-fired, combined cycle natural gas plants. The former has turned out to be a total boondoggle, but we continue to get excellent performance from the gas plants and, with the arrival of the fracking revolution, very low-priced generation. The VCEA wants all that efficient generation to retire early (not including the Wise County plant here) while incenting additional wind and solar generation. Dominion doesn’t really care one way or the other; they get additional sources of profit whenever they construct new facilities.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      That’s the essential point about Dominion. They’re in business to make money and if someone is willing to pay for something, they’re good to go.

      Once you kneecap the SCC, there are few restrictions to that endeavor.

  6. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    “Virginia’s electric utility sector reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 43% between 2010 and 2020.”

    Rate of emissions not total, JAB… from the same report, Virginia electricity generation increased by 41% over the same period. I doubt there was any significant reduction in actual CO2 emissions.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      so what are the actual facts? Could it be if we switched from coal to gas that we could actually do both by doing that over a decade?

    2. energyNOW_Fan Avatar
      energyNOW_Fan

      good point. That 41% increase in generation suggests either we are importing less or using more (cloud industry etc). Conceivably the in-state power increase is more carbon efficient than importing coal power from WV, but that would be a hard number to calculate.

      The number that we’d like to have, that we do not have, is carbon footprint per capita accounting for carbon intensity of the imported power. Even if we had per capita carbon footprint, it would require some interpretation , re: growth of industrial use vs. household use, etc., and if we start comparing between states, then climate differences etc.

Leave a Reply

Read More