The utility says that the proposal will probably have a lower overall cost than relicensing the nuclear power plant and operating it through 2044.
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The power produced by the plant’s two nuclear reactors would be replaced with investment in a greenhouse-gas-free portfolio of energy efficiency, renewables and energy storage, PG&E said in a statement.
The 31-year-old Diablo Canyon plant between Los Angeles and San Francisco will shut down by 2025, decades after its location near seismic faults on ocean bluffs helped spark the environmental movement against nuclear power.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s announcement yesterday that it would shutter California’s last nuclear plant and replace the power with energy efficiency and renewable energy was the result of a confluence of progressive state policies, CEO Anthony Earley said.
But China is among the countries still building nuclear power plants, and a USA industry group says nuclear remains a vital power source despite Californias deal.
“For years, some have claimed that we can’t fight climate change without nuclear power, because shutting down nuclear plants would mean burning more fossil fuels to generate replacement electricity”. The report, known as Plan B, provided a detailed analysis of how power from the Diablo Canyon reactors could be replaced with renewable, efficiency and energy storage resources which would be both less expensive and greenhouse gas free. Specifically, SB 350 passed previous year raised the state’s minimum energy needed to come from renewables to 50 percent.
Conservationists said the success of the Diablo Canyon deal could show the way forward for the countrys 60 other commercially operating nuclear plants, a lot of them more than 30 years old. “That’s wrong, of course”, said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the environmental groups that negotiated the accord with PG&E.
PG&E also needs approval from the State Lands Commission to extend the lease on the state’s coast through 2025; it now is set to expire in 2018. As of 2014, nuclear power represented nearly 9 percent of in-state generation. The agreement by PG&E not to seek license renewal is historic and will have a major impact on the San Luis Obispo region.
PG&E announced on June 20, 2016 a joint proposal with several parties to permanently close units 1 and 2 at its Diablo Canyon nuclear facility at the expiry of the units’ current operating licenses in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
“Today’s agreement is a good example of how we can replace dirty energy with clean when we set our minds to it”, agreed Rob Sargent, Energy Program director at Environment America.
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A recent analysis by the International Energy Agency found that in order for the world to meet the global warming limit enshrined in the Paris climate agreement in December, nuclear’s share of global energy production will need to grow from around 11 percent in 2013 to 16 percent by 2030. In Illinois, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, and other groups have formed an unlikely alliance with Exelon, the largest owner of nuclear plants in the United States, to reverse a deal to close two nuclear plants in the next two years, the Journal reports.
