Western Railroad Discussion > Colorado coal-fired power plant shutdown status...

https://coloradosun.com/2025/04/15/coal-fired-power-craig-tri-state-xcel-trump-orders/

Appears Colorado electric utilities are well on their way to shutting down most Colorado coal fired power plants between 2028 and 2030.  I love how someone summed up the article with "you might as well issue executive orders for going back to horse and buggies..."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/25 12:50 by cozephyr.

His executive orders don't mean squat to the utilities.  They are in the business of producing power and making the most money at the same time.  They would burn cow sh#t if it was cheaper and in good supply.

Dave

In 1990s, there was a cow poop plant near Brawley,  CA.   Have no idea if it's still in operation.  As far as clean coal,  maybe they should build a pilot plant in Palm Beach and see how that goes.

Yah I know but there's got to be some stopgap until something like the small nukes prove out. Arizona
is now #4 in the Nation for data ops using 1MW to 1 GW PER DAY! I remember the operation in Gardena
that one meg on the wall and they were melting titanium and it didn't run for all that long. AI giveth and
AI taketh away.

Out 

XCEL sold a lot of the Pueblo area local service to Black Hills Energy and Pueblo costs went up.  They are shutting down their coal generation there sooner than they had to , they are planning on, i think

masterphots Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In 1990s, there was a cow poop plant near
> Brawley,  CA.   Have no idea if it's still in
> operation.  As far as clean coal,  maybe they
> should build a pilot plant in Palm Beach and see
> how that goes.

Heck, build one in downtown LA or San Fran!

RR

Put Elon in charge. He’s a miracle worker, right??

Posted from iPhone

He's sitting high on Bandini Mountain.

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Put Elon in charge. He’s a miracle worker,
> right??
>
> Posted from iPhone

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Put Elon in charge. He’s a miracle worker,
> right??
>
> Posted from iPhone

Actually, his solar roof makes a lot of sense. Make the building / home roof of solar voltaic cell material. Feeds a powerwall battery in the garage.

Posted from Android

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Actually, his solar roof makes a lot of sense.
> Make the building / home roof of solar voltaic
> cell material. Feeds a powerwall battery in the
> garage.
>
> Posted from Android

Unless you live where there are big hailstorms.  

Thats a massive spread there, one gigawatt is 1000 megawatts.  That like saying some days I only spread a dollar and others 1000.

The actual numbers for 2024 are:

602.8 MW current operating
176.0 MW under construction

This is about 17% of Arizona's total electricity demand on a yearly basis.


allum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yah I know but there's got to be some stopgap
> until something like the small nukes prove out.
> Arizona
> is now #4 in the Nation for data ops using 1MW to
> 1 GW PER DAY! I remember the operation in Gardena
> that one meg on the wall and they were melting
> titanium and it didn't run for all that long. AI
> giveth and
> AI taketh away.
>
> Out 

WW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Actually, his solar roof makes a lot of sense.
> > Make the building / home roof of solar voltaic
> > cell material. Feeds a powerwall battery in the
> > garage.
> >
> > Posted from Android
>
> Unless you live where there are big
> hailstorms.  

This is actually the roof itself. Not panels placed on top.

RSD5 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> His executive orders don't mean squat to the
> utilities.  They are in the business of producing
> power and making the most money at the same
> time.  They would burn cow sh#t if it was cheaper
> and in good supply.
>

Yep, coal is expensive. You have to dig the stuff out of the ground and spend considerable amount transporting it, then deal with the ash.  How has the downfall of coal hurt the railroad's profits?  Looking at the railroad stocks over the past fives years one would think that the railroad sector is exploding with growth, but I can't see how that is the case. Coal was once a big portion of the transport business, but it has been fading away in recent years.


 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

To SCAX3401, the data I stated was provided by our local electric utility in response to public questions
about a potential data center customer. So Google away pal, it doesn't make you any smarter.

Out 

callum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yah I know but there's got to be some stopgap until
> something like the small nukes prove out. Arizona is
> now #4 in the Nation for data ops using 1MW to
> 1 GW PER DAY! 

I already did my cursory research on data center power consumption, so your 1 GW number is well within ballpark. All of America's "hyper data centers" consume at the minimum 50 GW at any given second, and Watts is Joules measured per second, for any unit measurement foamers out there.

> AI giveth and AI taketh away.

AI doesn't "giveth" much. It failed to provide a result when I made sure I used the word "cursory" correctly and the search engine interrupted my search session unsolicted with the failed result. Pathetic. Instead of storing garbage data at 50 GW, why not move 3.9 million people on trains running at 186 mph?

cchan006 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> callum_out Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Yah I know but there's got to be some
> stopgap until
> > something like the small nukes prove
> out. Arizona is
> > now #4 in the Nation for data ops using 1MW to
> > 1 GW PER DAY! 
>
> I already did my cursory research on data center
> power consumption, so your 1 GW number is well
> within ballpark. All of America's "hyper data
> centers" consume at the minimum 50 GW at any given
> second, and Watts is Joules measured per second,
> for any unit measurement foamers out there.
>
> > AI giveth and AI taketh away.
>
> AI doesn't "giveth" much. It failed to provide a
> result when I made sure I used the word "cursory"
> correctly and the search engine interrupted my
> search session unsolicted with the failed result.
> Pathetic. Instead of storing garbage data at 50
> GW, why not move 3.9 million people on trains
> running at 186 mph?

You have to wonder, how much of that electricy usage is directly attributable to virtual money mining, such as bitcoin. 

And how much heat is being created by all those DCs?

masterphots Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In 1990s, there was a cow poop plant near
> Brawley,  CA.   Have no idea if it's still in
> operation.  As far as clean coal,  maybe they
> should build a pilot plant in Palm Beach and see
> how that goes.
Across the street from Maro Logo

One of the local concerns is that we're doing battery storage on our new solar farm, you know for night when it doesn't cool down. 
It was felt that the data centers weren't going to shut down at night!

Out 

>
> You have to wonder, how much of that electricy
> usage is directly attributable to virtual money
> mining, such as bitcoin. 

Data Centers and bitcoin mining are driving a lot of electricity demand in Texas.

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=63344

>
> And how much heat is being created by all those
> DCs?

The new Blackwell chips from Nvdia create so much heat that a new architecture of liquid cooled heat dispersion was required.  Vertiv is one of the leaders in this new technology. The old, fan driven technologies could not get the job done.