Retrofit for the future: Former coal-burning power plants are the seeds of renewable energy
Two weeks I wrote about my dream to work with fossil fuel companies to help them transition to renewable energy. I received wonderful comments and emails with supportive messages and ideas of how to make that dream happen. (I also got a few hateful and misogynistic messages as well but that’s something all new ideas face. They only strengthen my conviction.)
This weekend I read a hopeful and optimistic article in The New York Times that shows one way that this transition is happening and can continue to happen at a much faster pace and on a larger scale than many people may realize. One of the most challenging pieces about the transition to renewable energy is connecting to the power grid to reach customers in a wide geographic area—it’s expensive, time-consuming, controversial, and filled with regulatory challenges. The solution: retrofit the multitude of connections from hundreds of old fossil fuel generators no longer in use.
“Solar and other projects are avoiding regulatory hassles, and potentially speeding up the transition to renewable energy, by plugging into the unused connections left behind as coal becomes uneconomical to keep burning,” writes Elena Shao.
Other upsides: the landscapes, ecosystems, and habitats don’t get disturbed by new transmission lines, renewable sources of energy are cheaper than fossil fuel production, the retrofit creates both short-term jobs in construction and long-term jobs in running the new renewable energy plant, and improvement in the physical, mental, environmental, and economic health of the areas that used to burn fossil fuels.
I’m imagining a map of all these defunct power plants, delving into the history and stories of these communities and residents. Together, we can build a better future for all. I want to dig into what it would cost and quantify what the many benefits would be. This world of climate change can feel frightening and hopeless. When I feel that way I remind myself the deepest darkness allows light to shine brightest. This idea, this story of the promise of retrofitting, is one of those sources of light.
I’m in just the right place at just the right time to do this project. The Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership where I’ll be studying at University of Cambridge has just completed a deep and ambitious retrofit of a 1930s telephone exchange building for its new campus headquarters. They learned an incredible amount in the project and my cohort this Fall will be the first to be based in this new home. Called the Entopia Building and located at 2 Regent Street, it’s a model of how using what’s old to create something new can shape our sustainable future.