The Tennessee Valley Authority could cut its emissions from power generation by as much as 90 percent by 2035 but will still likely need to add some natural-gas-fired plants to meet projected demand and offset existing power plant retirements.
According to a draft of its long-term plan released Monday, the nation’s largest public utility expects to build between 15 to 35 gigawatts of zero-emissions power, mostly solar, in the next decade.
The utility also projected that it will need to add anywhere from 4 to 19 gigawatts of natural gas, hydrogen or carbon-capture-retrofitted power plants to meet demand during that period. It modeled its scenarios based on projected economic growth in the region, and the EPA’s greenhouse gas reduction rule.
In addition, TVA predicted around 13 gigawatts of existing capacity will be retired by midcentury, and it sketched out a variety of scenarios to meet that gap in supply with a mix of nuclear, hydropower, gas, hydrogen, carbon capture retrofits, renewables, storage and energy efficiency.
