Reposted from CFACT
By Ronald Stein |October 12th, 2020|Energy
The Northwest has spoken loudly as the Benton Public Utility District (BPUD) has documented their actual battleground experiences with intermittent electricity from wind farms that should be a wake-up call to our policy makers. Their message is “no more wind”.
The Washington state utility 16-page report titled “Wind Power and Clean Energy Policy Perspectives” of July 14, 2020 provides a devastating counter attack to the wind lobbyists that they question the efficacy of wind farms for power generation and resulted in the utility’s commissioners saying they “do not support further wind power development in the Northwest.”
Kudos to this Washington state public utility for speaking up after seeing the costs and dangers of California’s experience with an overreliance on intermittent electricity from wind and solar. In a statement and report, the utility said overly aggressive clean energy policies bring about an unacceptably high risk of power grid blackouts. They go on to say the development of wind farms may be “politically fashionable” and appeal to many in the general public, but science and economics show that attempting to power modern civilization with intermittent electricity from wind and solar will come at a high financial and environmental cost.
The report is consistent with what has happened in Germany and Australia, as power prices in Germany are among the highest in Europe. Today, German households pay almost 50% more for electricity than they did in 2006. Shockingly, America, from California to New York, continues to take giant steps toward following Germany’s failed climate goals which should be a wake-up call for governments everywhere.
The Benton PUD believes:
- Further wind power development will unnecessarily contribute to increases in northwest utility retail electricity rates which could erode the economic development advantage low rates has given the region for many years. Establishing preferences for wind and solar energy with no accompanying targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions in the electricity sector has been shown through comprehensive study to result in unnecessary increases in the cost of electricity while not reducing GHG emissions in the most cost-effective manner possible
- The best long-term, sustainable, more cost-effective, potentially less risky, and environmentally responsible strategy toward meeting the CETA goal of 100% clean electricity in Washington State by 2045 could be to transition coal power to natural gas and then natural gas to nuclear. Benton’s position is 100 percent opposite of California’s mission to eliminate most natural gas power plants that generate continuous uninterruptible electricity, and all nuclear that generate the only known source of continuous zero emission electricity.
- Customers and citizens throughout the region are desirous of the natural beauty and open spaces that are part of their way of life. This is the reason for the report and for their formal declaration that Benton PUD does not support further development of wind power in the PNW. The PUD’s position is consistent with a recent decision in California as the San Bernardino County’s Board of Supervisors slammed the brakes on big industrial solar projects and highlighted a challenge for the huge landscaping demands of renewable intermittent electricity
- Lifecycle economic and environmental impacts expected to result from further development of wind power needs to be scrutinized to a much higher degree with greater recognition of issues like the global impacts of raw materials mining and the disposal of wind turbine blades which are currently destined for landfills. i.e. environmental degradation and humanity atrocities occurring from the mining in the countries that dominate the supply of the exotic minerals and metals to support wind, solar, and EV batteries.
The Benton PUD beliefs are consistent with the U.N. trade body, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD,) that issued a report breaking down some of the unintended negative consequences of the shift, which include ecological degradation as well as human rights abuses. The U.N. Warns of Devastating Environmental Side Effects of Electric Car Boom.
Further support of the Benton PUD beliefs are numerous documentaries about the atrocities the workers are put through in the cobalt mines, i.e. actually digging the mines by hand along with the horrendous living conditions. Amnesty International has also documented children and adults mining cobalt in narrow man-made tunnels along with the exposure to the dangerous gases emitted during the procurement of these rare minerals.
The wind and solar lobbyists and government policymakers continue their fast-stepping dance to the detriment of those that can least afford expensive electricity. They remain ignorant to the more than 6,000 products derived from the derivatives from oil that did not even exist before 1900 that are the basis of today’s societies and economies around.
The world needs to follow a prudent multi-decadal adaptation and energy strategy that is technically feasible, economically affordable, and socially enhancing (particularly in the developing world). Societies around the world need to be cognizant of understanding a world without fossil fuels, which the recent book “Just GREEN Electricity” does an excellent job of discussing.
- Electricity can make hospitals run efficiently, but electricity alone cannot make products derived from the derivatives from oil that produce all the critical medical equipment like ultrasound systems, mechanical ventilators, exhalation valves, inhalation valves, CT systems, X-ray, medicines, masks, gloves, soap and hand sanitizers for hospitals, and protective gowns, gloves and face shields gear for doctors and nurses.
- Electricity can charge your iPhone and EV battery, but electricity alone cannot make all the electronics and communications equipment.
- Electricity can help the militaries around the world function, but electricity alone cannot make any of the military equipment: aircraft carriers, battleships, destroyers, submarines, planes, tanks and armor, trucks, troop carriers, and weaponry.
The Benton PUD believes it is reasonable to question whether continuing to favor investments in intermittent wind electricity and putting up roadblocks to the development of dispatchable natural-gas power plants is more about environmental virtue signaling than it is about serving the best interests of the citizens of Washington State. In addition, this political posturing for renewables is silently supporting the environmental degradations and humanity atrocities occurring around the world to supply exotic minerals and metals required by wind, solar, and EV batteries.
Author
Ronald Stein is an engineer who, drawing upon 25 years of project management and business development experience, launched PTS Advance in 1995. He is an author, engineer, and energy expert who writes frequently on issues of energy and economics.
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In case you didn’t notice in haste, the actual report can be downloaded as a pdf to read later or use in evidence..
2045 is just 25 years away. Washington state generated a total of 106,464 GWh last year, 62% of that from hydroelectric. This is the highest percentage of hydro power for any US state. Coal and natural gas combined for 22,829 GWh. Assuming an 80% capacity factor, than means a total fossil fuel nameplate capacity of around 3.3 GW. Washington would need to bring 3 new AP1000 reactors online at a minimum to meet the CETA target. This is assuming none of the existing WA reactors will be shut down in the meantime.
A quick scan only shows 1 operating nuclear facility in WA, Columbia Generating Station near Pasco. It’s a 1.1 GW plant initially licensed in 1984 and renewed in 2012. The current license expires at the end of 2043, at which point it will have been in operation 59 years. So even if that license is extended for another 20 years, it means WA will have to replace the Columbia 1.1 GW with another new reactor no more than 18 years after the CETA goal of 2045.
Replacing WA’s modest amount of coal generation with natural gas is achievable, assuming the state also allows the necessary pipelines. But getting 3 new large reactors online by 2045 is a tall order. Georgia’s Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4 started the regulatory process in 2006 and actual construction in 2013. Current schedule is is unit 3 online May 2021 and unit 4 a year later. That’s 15+ years total time and 10+ years paying interest on construction loans for 2 reactors; Washington needs 3.
The only thing that keeps the CETA goal this side of pure fantasy (just barely) is that 62% hydro generation, something no other state has.
The larger question for residents of Washington State includes Oregon’s decision to go exclusively with wind and solar as a replacement for coal and natural gas, and the adverse impacts that decision will have on the reliability of the Western Interconnection.
That decision affects every utility that is connected to BPA’s power transmission service area in the US Northwest. Oregon’s decision to go exclusively with renewables in replacing coal and natural gas is ridiculous on the face of it. But nevertheless, it’s the decision a good majority of Oregon’s citizens support.
Most Oregonians are like most Californians and New Yorkers in that they will not wake up to the dangers posed by the renewables until and unless a series of severe blackout events occur. As far as they are concerned, the Sacramento River, the Columbia River, and the Hudson River are all filled with wind & solar Kool Aid.
As for the large AP1000 size reactors, the Vogtle 3 & 4 units will be the last of their kind built in the United States. We no longer have the kind of nuclear construction industrial base in this country necessary to deliver these large reactors on cost and on schedule.
The future of nuclear power in the US lies in building small modular reactors which can be manufactured and installed in cookie cutter fashion. If the NuScale SMR project in eastern Idaho comes in on cost and on schedule, then nuclear has a chance for a comeback.
From an article in East Idaho News:
So all Washington needs to do is license, permit, finance and construct 223 of these (upgraded to 14.8 MW) by 2045 and they can retire the coal and natural gas plants. Then another 75 by 2063 when presumably the Columbia Generating Station will be decommissioned. That’s just as tall an order as 4 AP1000’s.
Don’t get me wrong — I think the idea of modular nuclear reactors absolutely needs to be explored. But 14.8 MW units won’t scale up to to utility-scale power generation. And the NuScale reactors still use pressurized water as the moderator and primary loop, and thus have most of the same risks as the current Gen 3 units.
For a totally different technology that doesn’t use water as a moderator, take a look at Ultra Safe Nuclear’s Fully Ceramic Microencapsulated Fuel reactors. But they’re even smaller — 15MWt or 5MWe — even further from utility scale.
The NuScale SMR design is 60 Mw and uses conventional half height fuel rods. The plan for the eastern Idaho facility is for twelve of these 60 Mw SMR’s to be ganged in a common reactor pool facility for a total of 720 Mw. All twelve SMR units don’t need to be present at initial plant startup.
The NuScale SMR design is passively safe and has no meltdown risk to speak of. An individual SMR unit can be refueled while the other units are still in operation. A NuScale reactor facility doesn’t require nearly as large an emergency preparedness zone around it. A NuScale reactor facility can be islanded from the grid and can do a black start in the event of a major grid-scale blackout event.
The fact that the NuScale SMR design uses half height conventional fuel rods is an advantage in controlling costs and in controlling project risk for a new reactor design of this type. The conventional nuclear fuel cycle is well established and its cost and schedule risks for use in a new reactor design are well understood.
This is comparable to Amazon upending the most efficient retailers and their efficient networks of trucking and distribution centers and store outlets. Replacing all of that with many small truck and van deliveries to individual homes saves what. It’s another data problem for sure.
Very expensive lesson for Washington state. They would have saved a lot of money had they just listened to a first year engineering student’s evaluation of wind power.
Yeah, but clean air is worth it, no? Search Air pollution from China reaches California. One headline is 29% of San Francisco air pollution is from China. See? 6000 miles is not too far away – it’s a small world….and that alleged plastic island in the Pacific….it is mostly refuse from China’s rivers.
“The best long-term, sustainable, more cost-effective, potentially less risky, and environmentally responsible strategy toward meeting the CETA goal of 100% clean electricity in Washington State by 2045 could be to transition coal power to natural gas and then natural gas to nuclear. ”
OMG, someone that isn’t stupid. Well said. They will probably fire the person now.
If any utility company believes they can eliminate all their base loading fossil or nuclear power plants in favor of wind and solar, they don’t have the brains to operate an energy company. You don’t even need to do any math. Where do you get your energy at night when the wind is not blowing? If you saw outsource it, how does that work if all your neighbors are doing the same thing. A basic understanding is all you need to understand this will never work.
“ any utility company ”
Do you mean politicians?