Last Californian nuclear plant to be replaced by renewable technologies
Last of California’s nuclear plants will be shut down over the next decade
The last of California’s nuclear plants will be progressively shut down over the next decade it has been announced.
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has decided to close down the Diablo Canyon, which became the last Californian nuclear plant after Edison International closed three years ago, by 2025, because it cannot financially compete with the declining costs of wind and solar power.
The proposal, which is part of an agreement with environmental and labour groups to meet California’s low-carbon emissions goals, wants to replace the nuclear plant with technologies that do not emit greenhouse gases, including renewable energy.
Chief Executive Officer Tony Earley said: “It’s going to cost less overall as a total package than if you just continued to operate Diablo Canyon... It’s going to operate less because of the energy policies that are in place.”
According to its website, the plant supplies 10 per cent of California’s electricity.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kit Konolige said: “The price of renewables has come down substantially... The political calculus is that people would prefer to replace nukes with other kinds of zero-emission power, that is, renewables.”
Other states are taking the same approach to renewables and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo expressed his will to reduce carbon emissions, closing one reactor in the North of New York for example.
Fort Calhoun Station, in Nebraska, is soon to close as well as the competition with natural gas and wind is too important; Exelon Corp – the largest U.S. generator of power from nuclear energy, said earlier this month it will also close two money-losing Illinois plants.
Detractors, such as Marvin Fertel, chief executive officer of the Washington-based Nuclear Energy Institute, argue that the agreement between PG&E and California would not match other states’ needs, and that failing to support nuclear plants would result in “significantly negative economic and environmental consequences for decades”.