Big Stone Power Plant

South Dakota

1975

456

MW

2.3

MT/y

Big Stone Power Plant

Profitable?

No

Profitable?

Yes

Annual CO2 emissions saved

2.3

MT / year

Total W-S-B investment need

0.957

Bn. $

Investment breakdown

Investment Sum

This power plant can be profitably converted to S-W-B with a $0.957 Bn total investment.

This power plant can be converted to S-W-B with a $0.957 Bn total investment.

Solar

176

M. $

Wind

727

M. $

Battery

54,363

M. $

Production costs

5.2

ct/kWh

Production cost of coal (Source: IEA World Energy Outlook 2022; adjusted)

3.13

ct/kWh

Production cost of renewable energy

Technical breakdown

Renewables installed capacity

Solar

271

MW

Wind

527

MW

Battery

48

MWh

Renewable energy production

Share of Solar-Wind to match current coal production

15.0

%

85.0

%

Solar

Wind

Renewables area

Total area required for Wind-Solar mix*: 18.8 km²

*On sites with a high wind fraction, wind need = total need. Solar panels are placed within the area occupied by wind infrastructure.

2.17

km²

18.80

km²

Area use solar

Area use wind

Environmental conditions

Key environmental conditions around coal plant site (10,000 km2)

These are input values for the SwitchCoal model taken from the following reliable sources:

www.globalwindatlas.info | www.globalsolaratlas.info

Solar efficiency rate

1477

kwh/kwp

Mean wind speed

11

m/s

Impact

90%

of the world’s coal power plants can be profitably replaced by wind-solar-battery plants.

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