Our Sherco Mess

 

 

"So if we close this plant in 2020, what are we supposed to do for electricity? Put a windmill on our roof?

Most of us who vacation in Park Rapids, Alexandria, Brainerd or Detroit Lakes have driven by either the Sherco power plant in Becker or the nuclear plant in Monticello. They are so close to each other, (less than 10 miles), they are like twins. Between the two of them, this state gets almost half its electricity. They should be looked upon as a real blessing right? Wrong. Not in the eyes of the greenies and the statists.

Before I go any further, how is your electric bill doing? Mine is obscene. It is large and getting larger all the time. Experts now tell us due to the Administration's "War on Coal", we could see a 40% jump in the next five years. That means if you are paying $250/month now, your bill could be $400/month in the next few years. And it goes up from there.

I have addressed this point before. Our energy policy is no policy at all. Clueless people in state government as well as the EPA dictators in the federal government are on a path to shutter our coal fired power plants. Sherco is a coal fired power plant. And it is a huge target for the greenies. This monster plant, which by itself supplies our state with 2,400 megawatts of power, is a hungry beast indeed. It takes between 20,000 and 30,000 tons of coal a day to keep the fires burning.

Because we have such sort sighted leadership in Washington as well as St. Paul, they don't seem to realize that everything we do to improve these plants, or to close them, ends up costing the users money. And lots of it. If the state forces the Sherco plant close, besides losing a boatload of jobs in Sherburne and Wright Counties, finding enough electricity will be a problem. To replace of 2,400 megawatts from Sherco, and the 670 megawatts from the nuke plant in Monticello, would be a daunting task. And why did I throw the nuke plant into the mix? Because it is possible the license for the Monticello nuclear plant (which expires in 2030), will not be renewed.

So what is the plan for the future? If we lose Sherco sometime in the 2020's, and then the Monticello nuke plant in 2030, what are we going to do? Wind farms? Please - spare me. Besides killing untold amount of birds and insect eating bats, the cost of wind is quite a bit higher than coal. My personal belief is wind will never be a viable energy source. It will always operate on the margin. Solar yes, but the go to market technology is not quite ready yet.

To figure out absolute cost comparisons between different energy solutions almost takes a PhD in the math sciences. Suffice it to say that currently coal is our most abundant and cheapest method we have to produce electricity.

Cheer up folks! We learned to get along without electricity before the 20th century, so I am sure we can do it again. Of course there will be no way to power our electric cars, but so what? Who wants to drive anyway? We can just sit in our dark homes and put another log on the fire.