Thread by @emilygrubert

I'm supposed to be either on vacation or writing this week so clearly, I felt the need to make this thread in honor of the Petra Nova...situation.

🧵: POWER Magazine's Plant of the Year -- 🎵🎶where are they now? 🎵🎶

(Descriptions linked here: powermag.com/awards/plant-o…)

2020: T-Point 2. A not-yet-online fossil demonstration.

Quote: "It requires a lot of engineering to ensure a natural gas-fired combustion turbine will operate reliably //and last for decades// without major component failure."

Cool, cool, yes, innovating fossil fuels in 2020.

2019: the Egypt Megaproject. 14.4 GW of fossil capacity.

Sure. People need power, it's pretty efficient...being like "oh hey this was awesome because Siemens got a big contract" is a little :/

2018: Watts Bar 2. US nuke. Ground broken in 1973, online in 2016.

From Wiki: Startup was rough, with a bunch of offlining due to things like a structural failure in a component installed 40 years earlier.

(This is a participation award.)

(The plant setting is very pretty.)

2017: Petra Nova. US CCS.

"[Petra Nova] is distinctively both a globally significant environmental breakthrough and a trailblazing revenue-generating facility."

Oooooooooof.

2016: Lausward Fortuna unit. German gas.

Pictures are dope but I'm still not that excited about new fossil, even in 2016. Tbf they built this instead of a new coal unit.

2015: Boundary Dam (CCS)

Hilariously, Power Mag link redirects to the Petra Nova article.

Wiki: "In 2015, internal documents from SaskPower revealed that there were "serious design issues" ...that led the unit to only be operational 40% of the time."

2015 pic of nearby Shand

2014: Ivanpah (solar CSP)

Oh, no.

From Power Mag: "The first renewable plant to receive POWER’s Plant of the Year Award." -- and last, so far.

Anyway we know how that story went -- for a plant based on noncombustible fuel, it sure burns a lot of things (natural gas, birds,..)

2013: John Turk (coal)

Ok this one received the award "For overcoming numerous legal and regulatory obstacles" (and being ultrasupercritical) that I kind of wish it had not overcome.

Also noted: "the most expensive project ever built in the state of Arkansas"

Is that...good?

Describing the overcoming: "Shortly after SWEPCO announced the project, it became a target of a national anti-coal campaign and of organized opposition from local groups with land holdings near the plant."

and they were allowed to build on the condition they never did it again!

2012: coal, 2011: coal, 2010: coal, 2009: coal, 2008: coal, 2007: coal, 2006: coal, and I don't care to go further back.

In conclusion: I recommend not trying to make Power Mag Plant of the Year if you're a power plant!