Power company kills nuclear plant, plans $6 billion in solar, battery investment

[n2doc]

On Tuesday, power provider Duke Energy Florida announced a settlement with the state’s public service commission (PSC) to cease plans to build a nuclear plant in western Florida. The utility instead intends to invest $6 billion in solar panels, grid-tied batteries, grid modernization projects, and electric vehicle charging areas. The new plan involves the installation of 700MW of solar capacity over four years in the western Florida area.

There's excitement from the solar industry, but the announcement is more bad news for the nuclear industry. Earlier this year, nuclear reactor company Westinghouse declared bankruptcy as construction of its new AP1000 reactors suffered from contractor issues and a stringent regulatory environment. Two plants whose construction was already underway—the Summer plant in South Carolina and the Vogtle plant in Georgia—found their futures in question immediately.

At the moment, Summer’s owners are considering abandoning the plant, and Vogtle’s owners are weighing whether they will do the same or attempt to salvage the project.

Duke Energy Florida hadn’t started building the Levy nuclear plant, but it did have plans to order two AP1000 reactors from Westinghouse. Now that Westinghouse company is in dire financial straits, the Florida utility decided that its money is better spent elsewhere.

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https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/08/florida-power-company-exchanging-nuclear-plans-for-solar-plans-cutting-rates/

[Kleveland]

1. A nice bit of good news for the planet.

IMHO, nuclear energy has no place in our biosphere.

Considering long term affects and the byproducts, I can see nothing good about it.

It is clear to anyone sane in this day and age, that burning fossil fuels, and nuclear power for consumer electrical needs is a dead end, maybe more dead than we even know!

Solar power, and more advanced battery storage systems should be driving the industry.

That is not to say that other green sources of power are not viable as well.

Now, if someone can only find a sensible way to completely degrade or re-purpose plastic waste, and stop dumping it in our oceans!

A dreamer scenario would be a plastic refuse fuel-cell, that had no harmful inorganic byproducts.

In the big picture, humanity seems bent on destroying itself with petroleum based products (plastic, fuel, whatever), via the byproducts polluting our planet.

But the rich will die with their pockets too full of our cash, made from selling us our suicidal consumer products!

Senseless.

[hunter]

2. Possibly worse for the environment than a nuclear plant would have been.

And far less energy for the dollars invested.

But good news for the builders of nimble gas power plants, the fracking industry, dirty lithium mining, solar manufacturing, etc..

I'd much rather see this six billion dollars spent on reducing electricity demand.

Large scale solar projects built on previously undeveloped land are loathsome, the equivalent of strip mining. Rooftop solar and parking lot solar are a little less so.

Is it possible to build or retrofit housing in western Florida such that people no longer requires the services of Duke Energy? That's something I'd like to see...

[jpak]

3. The ignorance is appalling

n/t