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Why Biden Can Unite America With Nuclear Power – Or Divide It With Renewables
In his victory speech, President-elect Joe Biden said he would govern as an American, not as a Democrat, and work as hard for people who didn’t vote for him as people who did. And yet, at the top of his agenda, is to spend $2 trillion on climate change, almost entirely on renewables, which Republicans in Congress overwhelmingly oppose.
A better approach would be a Green Nuclear Deal.
“If Biden wants to unite Americans he should seek legislation to raise nuclear energy from its current 19 percent of electricity to 50 percent by 2050,” argues Madison Czerwinski, founder of a new group, Campaign for a Green Nuclear Deal. That may seem counterintuitive. After all, polling shows that solar and wind are more popular with the public than nuclear energy. But most of the resistance to industrial wind and solar projects comes from people who live in rural areas which overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump.
Why Biden Can Unite America With Nuclear Power – Or Divide It With Renewables
Renewables are increasingly divisive, particularly with Republicans. For Biden to bring Americans together he should pursue a Green Nuclear Deal.
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After reading your comment I can be assured you've never read PacifiCorp's IRP, which includes a disclaimer wide enough to drive a coal hauler through:
"The narrow scope of the coal study, which focused on unit-by-unit analyses with prescriptive retirement timing assumptions, was never intended to inform retirement decisions, but rather to inform the more in-depth and refined analysis in the subsequent portfolio-development process."
Tailor-made for naïve California renewables advocates, who will believe pretty much anything they're told.
Bob - you never show data - just crystal balls.
Not a good year for coal out West in 2020 - the closure in 2019 of huge Navajo plant in AZ and smaller Nucla plant in CO as well as Unit 3 at Naughton in WY( owned by PacifiCorp) put a real dent in production. I thought you said PacifiCorp wouldn't be closing coal?
I'm conservatively estimating 2020 output based on YTD 2020 data - coal was down 22+ TWh thru Aug.
So we only have 130 TWh of coal generation that needs to be replaced by renewables before 2030 - easy peasy.
In 2020, we have already had 2 units close at Colstrip in MT as well as Boardman coal plant in OR. Later this year, a unit at Centralia in WA will close, Escalante in NM will close and unit 4 at Cholla in AZ will close. Wait a second, that is also owned by PacifiCorp. What's going on?
PacifiCorp tells Arizona Public Service it will retire Cholla unit 4 by year-end
Bob, can you give us the name of a Western coal plant that will still be open after 2030? Four Corners in NM? Dave Johnson in WY, the remaining two units at Colstrip in MT? Whatcha got?
You're fixated on coal, Joe...what about gas?
Its just a matter of priorities Bob and coal is a higher priority. That's how you solve problems - work on the highest priority first.
Coal generates far more pollution and coal plants have higher fixed costs so we need to get these plants to close.
Once coal gets near zero - the 50+ TWh of new annual renewables generation will start to replace NG. This will be much easier because NG plants have lower operating costs and they can flexibily run when needed. Their capacity can "stick around" and serve as a backup. Keep an eye on UK over the next few years to watch NG generation "disappear" off the grid.
Here is latest on CO2 from coal/NG for US:
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Did you really think New Mexico residents would be willing to let the lights go out every time the wind stops blowing?
With coal gone in NM - obviously NG will serve as backup to growing wind and solar. But PNM also gets some nuclear generation from Palos Verde. Plus over time storage will eat into most of the NG generation. Pretty simple.
Here are some initial NM projects.
- Arroyo Solar - 300 MW solar & 150MW/600MWh of storage
- Jicarilla Solar - 50 MW solar & 20MW/80 MWh of storage
Here is a possible second batch:
- Shiprock Solar - 360 MW solar & 186 MW/744 MWh of storage
- San Juan Solar - 598 MW solar & 300 MW/1200 MWh of storage
- Four Corners Solar - 400 MW solar & unknown storage
This is just for the next few years. Expect a lot more to come.
One last thing Bob - you seem to think that NG is a likely replacement for coal out West. However, overall NG capacity in Western states has actually dropped a few GWs in the last 5 years. Looking at future builds out West - there are plans for 2.1GW of new NG but there are also plans for 3.9GW of NG retirements. Hope you not betting on NG out West...
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