California begins mapping future without nuclear power

[bananas]

Source: Los Angeles Times

California energy officials are beginning to plan for the possibility of a long-term future without the San Onofre nuclear plant.

<snip>

That long-range planning process already involves dealing with the possible repercussions of climate change, a mandate to boost the state's use of renewable sources to 33% of the energy supply by 2020 and another mandate to phase out a process known as once-through cooling that uses ocean water to cool coastal power plants, which will probably take some other plants out of service.

<snip>

Berberich and other energy leaders gathered in Los Angeles for a meeting convened by the California Energy Commission on long-term plans for the state's grid. The shuttered Southern California nuclear plant loomed large over the discussions.

<snip>

California ISO officials said they are beginning to plan for the possibility that the plant will still be offline in the summer of 2013 and hope to have the work done by the end of July.

<snip>

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/06/state-officials-no-san-onofre-plan-1.html

[wordpix]

1. all of southern CA could be run on solar, geesh

Just put the now cheap panels on the buildings and grounds, already!

[robinlynne]

2. All of the Us could be run on our Solar!

[wordpix]

3. in grey areas with long winters, no, but a combination of wind, solar and biomass would work

[robinlynne]

7. I read that the mohake desert alone can provide enough solar energy to power the entire country.

obviously things are not that simple. An ecosystem could be wiped out if you fill the area with solar panels.
but the point is, we have enough potential in one area of the country to fuel everything and probably all of canada as well.

[wordpix]

12. huge solar projects with 200 mi. transmission lines from outer deserts to cities is not efficient

I think the way to go is to put up solar panels on roofs and south-facing sides of buildings, lawns, schools, wherever the people are. I am no electrical genius but these big projects tend to be far from the consumers of power and inefficiencies have to result in power produced at source minus power received at the end of 200+ mi. lines.

[robinlynne]

17. My point is only that there is more than enough solar power available in the US for all of our energ

energy needs.

[mother earth]

4. And all states should follow their lead! nt

[slackmaster]

5. I remember my girlfriend and me cheering as we passed San Onofre while on a school choir trip

It must have been 1972 or 1973. We had bought into the fairy tale of abundant clean, safe power.

How different things look now. I put a 1.5 KW solar array on my roof a little over a year ago. My only regret is that I didn't buy a larger system initially. My monthly electric bills are down in the $20 range now, my purchased power squarely in the middle of the lowest rate tier. But I can certainly see expanding the system within the next few years.

San Diego Gas & Electric just spent billions on the Sunrise PowerLink project. They're going to want to recover that cost plus their liability for several fires caused by their equipment, and insurance premiums. No doubt rates will be going up.

[may3rd]

6. With those vast,empty deserts, why haven't they started to exploit that resource?

Why isn't a socal college using grant $$ to get a large tract test bed operational ?

[itsrobert]

8. Environmentalist

and Native American Burial Grounds, etc.

[solarman350]

9. Let's Get To It

.
.

[wordpix]

13. thanks for the graphics, solarman

[freshwest]

20. Awesome visuals. Bookmarking this for later.

[Downtown Hound]

10. Good, get that piece of shit plant out my my freaking state! n/t

[drynberg]

11. SAN ONOFRE IS WORSE THAN THOUGHT, SEE FAIREWINDS.COM

Arnie Gunderson hasn't been on DU lately, but that does not mean nukes are now alright, in fact the SanOnofre nuke is really on the edge of risky the health of more than 5 million Americans in a 50 mile radius. Now is the time to shine the light of TRUTH and maybe the politicians will then feel the heat of a populace that demands safe sustainable alternatives such as solar, wind, etc. Thanks for the post!

[wordpix]

14. instead of discussing how long this nuke is offline, they ought to get those solar panels up!

[SunSeeker]

15. Yes! Get that monstrosity off San Onofre Beach!

[JDPriestly]

16. Gooe news!

[Overseas]

18. K&R. Yes please!

[freshwest]

19. Solar would is more reliable than complicated systems. Nukes boil water, so can solar.

We kmow how to do this if we want it. And as Germany goes solar, we can learn from them.

[NickB79]

21. My prediction: A little solar, a little wind, and a buttload of new natural gas power plants

Fracking is driving the price of gas so low that it's slowing the deployment of renewables like wind and solar: http://www.npr.org/2012/02/02/146297284/could-cheap-gas-slow-growth-of-renewable-energy

And, natural gas derived from fracking isn't even better than coal when it comes to global warming. In fact, as crazy as this sounds, using fracked natural gas instead of coal could make global warming WORSE: http://inhabitat.com/updated-cornell-study-shows-fracking-causes-more-global-warming-than-coal/

I hope like hell I'm wrong, but global trends right now do not look promising

[Sirveri]

22. That sounds about right. Need to clear out the gas subsidies and give more solar/wind subsidies

We also need more hydro in the state to repair our water supplies. But that's way too expensive for the corps to do so that will never happen. Government needs to lead the way here but they won't.

[XemaSab]

24. Pretty much

[truthisfreedom]

23. More research needs to be done on thorium nukes.

We've only built one reactor, long since decommissioned by the Air Force. Some believe that thorium reactors, which use plentiful fuel, produce short-lived waste products that can be rotated in and out of storage over decades, and shut down safely without power, automatically, using a remarkably simple and fail safe method. They actually might be the answer.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for solar, but thorium reactors can provide huge amounts of power safely (from what I've read) close to cities, with tiny footprints. One of the weird and wonderful things about the process is that when they overheat, the reaction naturally slows down, making them self-regulating.