Ameren announced plans to build a natural gas fired power plant near the site of the recently closed coal fired plant. That probably means the required transmission lines are already in place. And cooling water is available. Much cleaner than coal. No cinders or stack scrubbing to worry about. And natural gas is said to be abundant. But it is a fossil fuel that makes carbon dioxide.
They say it will be a peak power plant. Probably used to fill in for gaps in their green energy supply. Ameren has been heavily committed to fossil fuels for decades. The plants are reliable and they know how to manage them. At this time they have mostly avoided wind farms but do have new additions to solar power.
They should do more. Service life of the new plant will likely be 40 years. Better to put the money into green energy with battery back-ups.
Missouri has had major resistance to use of eminent domain to build new powerlines to carry power from windfarms in Kansas to eastern markets. They claim private companies should not have eminent domain. That should be restricted to public projects.
This makes it more difficult to find places to put wind and solar.
Ameren does not say where they will get the natural gas. Probably from Oklahoma. In existing pipelines? Doubtful. Can they build new ones without eminent domain?
To replace fossil fuel peaker plants they should use battery storage.
The rapid-ramping units, known as “peaker plants” or “peakers,” exist to come online quickly (sometimes within minutes) and only stay online during short periods when baseload or intermediate units cannot meet unanticipated surges in demand. Peakers typically run for 10 percent or less of the year and may never run for more than four hours at a time.