The head of one of America’s largest coal-fired utilities said Tuesday that big power plants will remain the cornerstone of power generation for at least the next 50 years, while rooftop solar panels will likely not catch on due to the expense and technical limitations.
Tom Fanning, the chairman and CEO of Southern Company, told the Atlantic Council think tank that putting solar panels on all rooftops is not the best means to reduce carbon output, saying it will be more effective to take advantage of the “abundant” supply of energy and get consumers to “use more.”
“If you can make my [company’s] product cheaper, more attractive, then people will use more,” and consequently “they’ll live in a better place” with better food and better education, Fanning said.
Fifty percent of the coal in the world is low-grade coal, Fanning explained. Southern Company has developed technology that can exploit this abundant resource, creating synthetic natural gas from lignite coal. This produces lower-carbon electricity that can limit greenhouse gases (GHGs).
“It’s the balance of clean, safe, affordable, reliable” that should lead the global greenhouse gas policy discussion. Coal is a solution, he argued, not a problem.
While smaller power resources such as rooftop solar have drawn consumer interest, Fanning said those technologies are extremely limited in their ability to generate power, despite some degree of innovation in recent years.
He said consumers who want rooftop solar are driven by a “value system” and a belief in distributed rooftop solar. “Good for them.” But when compared to a utility-owned “central station” power plant, it is far too expensive, Fanning said.
“I am all for distributed generation in any form,” but “you are always going to need central station generation” because “it doesn’t work at night and you’re going to need the [utility] network … [and] backup generation.”
The better option is to work on innovation in household efficiency like smart thermostats and solar panels that can use some form of electricity storage, Fanning said.
Southern company is utilizing its R&D hub to invest in the development of electric storage technology that can back up solar when the sun is not shining. The company is also examining other alternatives to solar like combined heat and power (CHP), which uses natural gas more efficiently while producing heat.
“Lets take advantage of all the blessings of resources that we have,” Fanning said, “[and] promote an entire energy portfolio [that includes]”nuclear, 21st-century coal, natural gas, renewables and energy efficiency. Let’s use every arrow in the quiver.”
