Guest post by Gordon J. Fulks
At a time when campaigning politicians are challenging reality with extravagant promises, recent developments suggest the power industry may be returning to sanity — despite the Biden administration’s frantic attempts to spend billions on so-called “renewable energy.”
Much of this drama is playing out in my part of the Pacific Northwest, where policymakers prefer popular ideological approaches to energy needs over practical technologies that rely on fossil fuels, nuclear power, or hydropower. One result is the intrusion of expensive, unreliable and environmentally harmful wind turbines into the Northwest’s unique beauty.
Among those who saved us were the Aboriginal people, for whom this land was sacred. They recently forced the federal government and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotke to cancel the sale of large offshore land for wind development.
Market realities also came into play: only one inexperienced company tendered for the project. Other competitors have withdrawn because of the financial risks of offshore wind, involving high costs and the hazards of corrosive and stormy marine environments. Besides, who wants intermittent power that costs more than it’s worth? No one.
Another ally in the fight for sanity is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who is sometimes known for hare-brained schemes such as blocking out sunlight to cool the planet. Sweden rejected this.
Nonetheless, Gates has rightly supported nuclear power, which has been criticized despite its clear advantages. In 2006, he founded TerraPower to develop advanced breeder reactors to power a plant in Kemerer, Wyoming. TerraPower broke ground in June with $1 billion in funding from Gates. The factory is designed to operate for 50 years No need to refuel.
In Pennsylvania, Microsoft, for which Gates continues to advise, signed a $1.6 billion deal to use 800 megawatts of nuclear power at Three Mile Island to power data centers. With the power generation capacity of thousands of large wind turbines, TMI's Unit 1 will provide more reliable power than wind and solar.
Just a few years ago, TMI's reopening would have been unthinkable. People now seem to have forgotten the partial meltdown of Unit 2 in 1979.
Then there's Amazon, a company better known for its consumer goods delivery than its profitable data centers. Residents of eastern Oregon are familiar with Amazon's large, dreary concrete buildings outfitted with elaborate cooling equipment and large backup generators in case utility power fails. These imply huge power consumption.
Attracted by Oregon's generous tax breaks, Amazon and other Internet service providers such as Google and Facebook built data centers to take advantage of the state's cheap hydropower.
What the newcomers didn't realize, however, was that government officials had inadequately planned for the increased power needed for the new data center. Meanwhile, politicians are forcing power companies like Portland General Electric to switch to wind and solar while promoting an all-electric economy.
Data centers must find reliable power and Satisfying the ideological demands of Oregon politicians. It doesn't work. These centers now require more power than Oregon’s grid can supply. Power outages are a distinct possibility.
Although ideologically aligned with Oregon politicians, Amazon executives realize that if they continue to postulate about using renewable energy, their lucrative data centers will fail.
So they took a bold step on October 16 and announced that they would cooperate with X-Energy to build small modular nuclear reactors to provide the power they need. The facilities would not be built in Oregon, which largely bans nuclear power, but across the Columbia River in Washington state, near existing nuclear power plants. Electricity can be easily shipped to Oregon.
Amazon announced it is working on the nuclear project with Energy Northwest, a consortium of 29 Washington state utilities. It's a sign that many Northwest utilities are finally acknowledging that the region will need a lot of new, reliable power.
Thank you Amazon for coming up with a solution to the looming power shortage in the Pacific Northwest. This may not protect us from the big rate increases that are starting to hit consumers as renewable energy collapses. But it might keep the light on.
This review was first published on Biggest news December 4, 2024.
Gordon J. Fulks holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research at the University of Chicago. He is a director of the company carbon monoxide2 alliance, Arlington, Virginia.
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