As clean energy grows worldwide, there are plenty of good questions about what will happen to infrastructure used to produce dirty energy sources like oil, coal, and gas.
But, as many of these factories and plants shut down, engineers have found exciting new ways to restore them as facilities for clean energy production. Here are five of the most amazing projects in action.
Nevada's massive clean energy plant
The Reid Gardner Generating Station in Nevada, once rated the nation's dirtiest coal plant in terms of carbon pollution, is now getting a second chance at a cleaner reputation. Earlier this year, NV Energy converted the former coal plant into the largest solar and wind energy storage system of its kind in the state.
The Reid Gardner Generating Station in Nevada, once rated the nation's dirtiest coal plant in terms of carbon pollution, is now getting a second chance at a cleaner reputation. Earlier this year, NV Energy converted the former coal plant into the largest solar and wind energy storage system of its kind in the state.
According to NV Energy's CEO, the project will lower bills by 15-20% by the end of 2024.
The future of clean energy storage
Technology from Toronto-based company Hydrostor has the potential to store clean energy using air, water, gravity, and old infrastructure from the oil and gas industry. The new storage technique, called "advanced compressed air energy storage," can store electricity for up to eight hours.
Plants that use this new technology have been planned in California and Australia, with construction of Australia's system set to be up and running by 2027 and California aiming for 2030.
Geothermal power systems
Abandoned infrastructure is also being used to support another clean energy resource: geothermal energy. A 2021 project tested injecting heated water into abandoned gas wells in the Illinois Basin for three days and then monitoring changes in pressure, thermal conditions, and hydraulics for another five days to see how well the process stored heat energy.
These tests found that this process sustains a thermal storage efficiency of 82%. This would result in a cost of $0.138 per kilowatt-hour of electricity, less than the current average for electricity in the U.S.
A facelift for coal plants
Xcel Energy is set to turn two former coal plants in Colorado and Minnesota into clean energy storage sites as early as 2025. Though the sites no longer produce energy, they are still connected to the electricity grid, making them viable options to store and distribute clean energy.
These new facilities will use revolutionary ion-air batteries made by Form Energy to store the power and continually release it over several days.
New hydropower facilities
Florida clean energy company Rye Development is receiving $81 million in funding from the Department of Energy to turn a former coal mine in Kentucky into a pumped storage hydropower facility. The Lewis Ridge Pumped Storage Project, set to begin construction in 2027, will be the first of its kind built on former coal mine land.
The facility will be able to generate enough energy to power 67,000 homes and store electricity for up to eight hours.
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