Reality Forces Reason into Power Choices

Guest essay by Gordon J. Fulks

At a time when campaigning politicians defy reality with extravagant promises, recent developments suggest reason may be returning to the electric power sector – even as the Biden administration frantically tries to spend billions on so-called ‘renewable energy.’

Much of this drama plays out in my Pacific Northwest, where policymakers favor faddish, ideological approaches to energy needs over practical technologies relying on fossil fuels, nuclear, or hydro. One result has been the intrusion of expensive, unreliable, and environmentally damaging wind turbines on the beauty that makes the Northwest special.

Among those saving us from ourselves are native people, for whom the land is sacred. They recently forced the federal government and Oregon Governor Tina Kotek to cancel the sale of large offshore tracts for wind development.

Also playing a role were market realities: Only a single, inexperienced company bid on the project. Other competitors dropped out because offshore wind is financially risky, involving high costs and the hazards of a corrosive and stormy marine environment. Besides, who wants intermittent power that costs more than it is worth?  No one.

Another ally in the fight for sanity is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, sometimes known for harebrained schemes such as blocking out the Sun to cool the planet. Sweden nixed that.

Nevertheless, Gates rightly has championed nuclear power, much maligned despite obvious advantages. In 2006, he founded TerraPower to develop an advanced breeder reactor that will power a plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming. With one billion dollars from Gates, TerraPower broke ground in June. The plant is designed to run 50 years without refueling.

In Pennsylvania, Microsoft, which Gates continues to advise, signed a 1.6-billion-dollar agreement to power data centers with 800 megawatts of nuclear power from Three Mile Island.  With the generating capacity of thousands of large wind turbines, TMI’s Unit 1 will provide power far more reliably than wind and solar.

TMI’s reopening would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.  People now seem to have forgotten the partial meltdown of Unit 2 in 1979. Or they have come to understand that the risks of nuclear power can be managed — just like the hazards (real or imagined) of other modern technologies.

Then there is Amazon, a company better known for its delivery of consumer goods than for its profitable data centers. Residents of eastern Oregon are familiar with Amazon’s large, dreary concrete buildings that have elaborate cooling equipment and large backup generators should utility power fail. These hint at enormous power consumption.

Lured by Oregon’s generous tax breaks, Amazon and other web service providers like Google and Facebook built data centers to take advantage of the state’s cheap hydroelectric power.

However, the newcomers did not realize that public officials were inadequately planning for the increased power that new data centers would require. This came at a time when politicians were also forcing electric utilities like Portland General Electric to switch to wind and solar while promoting an all-electric economy.

Data centers had to find reliable power and meet the ideological requirements of Oregon politicians.  It did not work. The centers now need more electricity than the Oregon grid can supply.  Blackouts are a distinct possibility.

Although ideologically aligned with Oregon politicians, Amazon executives realized their very profitable data centers would fail if they kept posturing with renewable energy.

So, they took a bold step on October 16, announcing that they will work with X-Energy to build small modular nuclear reactors to provide the power they need. These will be set up, not in Oregon where nuclear power is essentially banned, but across the Columbia River in Washington State, near an existing nuclear plant. Power can be easily shipped to Oregon.

Amazon announced that it is working with Energy Northwest, a consortium of 29 Washington State utilities on this nuclear project.  This suggests that many Northwest utilities are finally acknowledging that the region will need great amounts of new and reliable power.

Thank you, Amazon, for promoting a solution to the looming Pacific Northwest power shortage. This may not save us from the massive rate increases that are beginning to hit consumers due to the renewable debacle. But it may keep the lights on.

This commentary was first published at Newsmax on December 4, 2024.

Gordon J. Fulks has a Ph.D. in physics from the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research at the University of Chicago. He is a director of the CO₂ Coalition, Arlington, Virginia.