The closure of 5.1 gigawatts of nuclear capacity slated for closure this year.
Those nuclear plants play a critical role in reducing emissions from the electricity sector. The three power plants slated for closure produce about the same amount of electricity as all of the solar capacity in California. They also provide thousands of high-paid jobs. They also provide stable, baseload power to the electric grid. And unlike solar and wind energy, they need lots of rural land, and they don’t need new high-voltage transmission capacity to accommodate their output.
Joe Biden has proposed “Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Standard” which he “pledges to fully decarbonize the domestic electric grid by 2035”.
Achieving this without the massive amount of zero-carbon electricity now being produced by America’s existing fleet of reactors will make it impossible.
43 terawatt-hours is nearly three times as much as was produced by all U.S. geothermal plants in 2019. It’s also nearly three times as much electricity as was produced by all the solar capacity in Spain in 2019 and about 1.5 times as much as all the wind energy that was produced in Iowa in 2019. Need another comparison? The reactors slated for closure are currently producing about as much energy as all of the wind turbines in California, or all of the solar capacity in Germany.
MJM says
Not just nukes, but electric and gas are closing. Greenies and the EPA have made it darn near impossibe to replace these old plants. Where can I get a solar powered clam boat ? It looks to me like we are destroying our infrastructure ON PURPOSE to fulfill some ignorant globalist dream of unity. We won’t be able to charge our electric cars w/o electric plants. Of course Joe, Kamala, Nancy and Barack will have megawatt generators on their waterfront property and have no worries……Me ? I won’t be able to heat my house. There’s probably legislation pending to make us stop cutting down trees.
Scotiagirl says
There are at least 15 steps that are accomplished between felling a tree and delivering lumber to a store. Each of these is dependent upon gas\diesel and\or electricity to complete. And that does not include the fuel to power the computers used at gigantic sawmills, not does it take into account the fuel sources for trucks and trains that are necessary to transport wood and wood by-products.
Scotiagirl has had some connection with lumbering in Canada. It has been a while but she does not remember either wind or solar power being used to get the job done.
MJM says
Well your buddies in Canada better invent a solar powered log splitter or mommy is gonna be cold and there will be no rumbling in the sheets in Canada soon ! LOL ! Yeah the greenies are after our sex lives too.
Scotiagirl says
Scotiagirl is grateful for the admonition and while she has little influence over the business decisions of her relatives, she will stay warm under her sheared beaver should she return to the north country. Ooops, can she even SAY that in this forum??
Sorin Varzaru says
I guess we agree on at least one thing.