Diablo Canyon nuclear plant cleared to operate past 2025

Breanne Deppisch

March 02, 05:56 PM March 02, 05:56 PM

Pacific Gas & Electric can continue to operate the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant past its scheduled closing date in 2025, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled Thursday, a significant decision aimed at ensuring grid reliability in California.

The decision allows PG&E to keep the plant online so long as the utility completes a lengthy relicensing process before Dec. 31, 2023, which requires it to outline a plan to address issues related to the safety and integrity of its reactors.

Still, it is major win for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and other state lawmakers who had pushed for the extension, citing threats to the state's power grid during periods of peak demand.

Lawmakers in October overwhelmingly approved a measure to approve Diablo's operations through 2030 and granted a $1.4 billion loan to PG&E to keep the plant online.

Diablo Canyon, located on the coast in San Luis Obispo County, is a major source of power in the state, supplying roughly 17% of California’s greenhouse-gas-free electricity supply and 8.6% of the state's total electricity.

Efforts to keep the nuclear power plant open come as California battles extreme heat, wildfires, and other events that have strained the state’s electric grid.

Diablo “continues to be an important resource as we transition away from fossil fuel generation to greater amounts of clean energy, with the goal of achieving 100 percent clean electric retail sales by 2045,” Newsom's office said in a statement last fall.

The NRC said in a news release that the exemption would “not present undue risk to the public health and safety, and is consistent with the common defense and security.”

It also reaffirms a decision from the California Energy Commission, which ruled this week that keeping Diablo online through 2030 is necessary to keep the lights on in the state.

“As California confronts a rapidly changing climate, extraordinary heat events and record energy demand are becoming increasingly ordinary. The state needs to keep all options on the table to protect public health and safety,” California Energy Commission Vice Chairman Siva Gunda said in a statement. “This includes maintaining Diablo Canyon’s operations.”

High heat and wildfire conditions have stressed the state's power grid to near collapse in recent years, including in 2022, when the state endured its longest and most intense heat wave on record. Historic drought has also reduced its ability to generate hydropower by 48%.

A recent study published by the Brattle Group found that extending Diablo Canyon’s capacity could help California decarbonize “more quickly, more reliably, and at a lower cost” — approximately $5 billion less — than if the plant shut down in 2025 as previously planned.

California has tried to transition away from nuclear in recent years but endured scrutiny after its 2012 closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, or SONGS.

A 2016 study published in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics found that in the 12-month period after the Southern California facility was shuttered, the power it generated was largely replaced by natural gas, increasing emissions and driving up costs for consumers by an estimated $350 million that year alone.

In the 12 months following the closure of SONGS, researchers found that carbon emissions also rose by 9 million metric tons — the equivalent of putting an additional 2 million gas-consuming cars on the road.

Russia's war has mobilized $500 billion in clean energy spending

Breanne Deppisch

December 25, 06:30 AM December 25, 06:30 AM

Russia’s war in Ukraine has accelerated the pace of clean energy spending, according to a report from the world’s leading energy agency, sparking $500 billion in new government investments alone, as leaders seek to transition away from fossil fuels and keep costs down for consumers.

The two primary drivers of government clean energy spending this year were concerns over energy security and soaring costs of commodities, according to the International Energy Agency’s Government Energy Spending Tracker.

In Europe, the energy crisis sent natural gas prices soaring to a record high of more than 300 euros per megawatt hour in August, touching off fears of an affordability crisis, while gas prices in the U.S. reached an all-time high of more than $5 per gallon in June.

But the crisis has also led governments to embrace clean energy policies in an effort to decrease global demand for every type of fossil fuel in the near future. As a result of the shift to clean energy, coal use will peak within the next few years before declining, while natural gas demand will plateau by 2030, the report said. Total renewable capacity growth is set to nearly double in the next five years, the report found, overtaking coal as the largest source of electricity generation.

RUSSIAN OIL EXPORTS CRATERED BY MORE THAN HALF SINCE G-7 PRICE CAP BEGAN

The U.S. was at the fore of clean energy spending this year, according to the tracker, largely due to its August passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which allocates more than $360 billion in clean energy and climate spending. It was followed closely by the European Union — and particularly, the governments of Finland, France, and Germany.

Other countries, including Japan and South Korea, have also ramped up their renewable energy investments this year. Japan announced the launch of its Green Transformation program, which invests in clean energy technologies such as nuclear, low-emissions hydrogen, and ammonia, while South Korea has accelerated its efforts to increase the amount of nuclear power and renewable sources in its energy mix.

Energy security was a major concern this year, especially in the European Union, which depended heavily on Russian fossil fuels prior to the war. But in the 10 months since Russia’s invasion, the bloc has raced to accelerate clean energy projects, such as solar, wind, and nuclear power, bringing down its total demand for natural gas and oil by 20% this decade, and coal demand by 50%.

Meanwhile, Inflation Reduction Act investments put the U.S. on track to see its annual solar and wind capacity increase by 2.5 times by 2030, compared to today’s levels, and electric vehicle sales increase by seven times the current amount.

In total, the new national investments in clean energy bring to $1.22 trillion the amount that governments have allocated to clean energy since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That funding has also substantially incentivized spending by the private sector, the IEA found: Government spending is expected to mobilize flows of private investment by another 50% by 2030, reaching more than $2 trillion annually.

“The responses from governments to the crisis are going in the right direction,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement.

“The unprecedented financial support we are seeing for clean energy transitions is improving energy security and dampening the impact of high fuel prices on customers," he said.

US seeks to boost jobs, security, and green energy with Central American investment

Katherine Doyle

December 07, 07:51 PM December 07, 07:51 PM

The Biden administration’s top diplomat overseeing energy policy said broadening critical mineral supply chains away from China is a concern for the United States amid the green energy transition it hopes to spearhead.

Diversifying the critical mineral supply chain will prove “hugely important” to the success of a green energy transition and U.S. national interests and security, Geoffrey Pyatt, the assistant secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.

BILL TO STOP CHINESE DRONES STALLED BY DEMANDS FOR US INTELLIGENCE CARVE-OUT

China dominates the supply chain for critical minerals, many of which are essential to green technologies. This reliance on Beijing draws worries.

“We do not want to replace an era in which Russia was able to manipulate its fossil fuel assets to intimidate and coerce our allies and partners with one in which China is able to manipulate its critical minerals supply chain monopolies,” Pyatt said.

Demand for minerals is expected to grow exponentially as the administration’s climate bill goes into effect and other countries ramp up their deployment of green efforts. For instance, lithium demand is forecast to grow more than 40 times, he added.

“So we don’t have a lot of time to work on these issues,” he added. "But this is solvable.”

Pyatt spoke with the Washington Examiner exclusively before his remarks at a conference last month organized by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration in Washington, D.C.

Dante Mossi, executive president of CABEI, said he had brought together U.S. and Central American officials and private sector representatives to foster ties that could speed new investments. The idea is to steer U.S. electric vehicle, grid technology, and other green companies toward Central American businesses as they accelerate their green energy transition.

Another factor is jobs, Pyatt said.

“We have a special interest in the CABEI region in Central America because of the nexus with the question of migration,” he explained.

Mossi described how investments during the pandemic helped create about 100,000 new jobs. In a subsequent survey, he said the results showed that people said, “We didn’t migrate to the U.S. because we had an opportunity to stay here in Central America.”

Said Pyatt, “[The] same exact thing applies to this clean energy technology transition.”

At the same time, the bank and U.S. have cast a wary eye toward China, which has invested billions of dollars in regional energy sectors, including renewables and raw materials essential to the technology.

“We have Chinese companies looming,” Mossi said. “We are asking for market access. Sell us cars because if the U.S. doesn’t sell cars to us, China will.”

The topic surfaced in discussion with President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, during the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this year, Mossi said, with the former secretary of state interested to learn that the bank channels 40% of its financing toward sustainable energy projects.

Mossi said that because CABEI counts Taiwan as a nonregional member, the bank is unable to finance projects from Beijing. “When I mentioned this, he said, ‘Dante, you are even friendlier than I expected.’”

One of the world’s largest economies, China has long resisted U.S. efforts to meaningfully rein in its greenhouse gas emissions. The toll is staggering, totaling more than the entire world combined, according to a report by the Rhodium Group.

In Bali, Indonesia, last month, Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to resume international climate talks that had been frozen for months amid tensions over trade, Taiwan, and other issues.

Biden to use Protection Creation Act to make much more solar panel areas at house

Jeremy Beaman

June 06, 09:34 AM June 06, 09:46 AM

President Joe Biden will invoke the Protection Generation Act on Monday to improve domestic generation of solar panel factors and other systems in assist of his inexperienced energy agenda.

The White Home introduced the set of government steps as domestic photo voltaic builders and brands face off over an active Commerce Office investigation weighing new tariffs on photo voltaic imports, which developers say is hampering their jobs and threatening Biden's ambitions of chopping greenhouse fuel emissions.

Everyday ON Energy: REPUBLICANS’ MIDTERM Energy Participate in

The DPA will include the manufacture of photovoltaic modules, which are a central element of photo voltaic panels, as well as warmth pumps and tools for making electrolyzers and gasoline cells.

Biden will also invoke emergency authority to produce a two-yr "bridge" stopping the imposition of new tariffs to make certain photo voltaic developers have accessibility to photo voltaic solution imports though manufacturing grows, the White Property said.

The actions attempt to serve the passions of both photo voltaic builders and companies, who have been competing over the Commerce Department's anti-circumvention investigation into solar imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The Commerce Division opened its investigation on April 1 at the request of California-primarily based solar module manufacturer Auxin Photo voltaic to consider no matter whether Chinese companies are circumventing tariffs on photo voltaic merchandise by sending them by way of third nations around the world.

Solar builders and a number of Democratic lawmakers opposed the investigation and argued it can be major to bigger rates and canceled provide agreements.

Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Electrical power Industries Association, mentioned the govt steps "protect present solar careers, will direct to amplified employment in the solar marketplace, and foster a robust photo voltaic production foundation here at residence."