States’ Best Practices Attracting Baseload Investment

[kristopher]

States’ Best Practices Attracting Baseload Investment
Some States Are Acting Against the Hollowing of the Nation’s Baseload Fleet But Many Are Not

Executive Summary
There are clear signs the nation is under-investing in the backbone energy infrastructure, particularly the baseload power generation fleet. Ignoring the advanced age of its vital nuclear and coal components, we have been building only a trickle of new state-of-the-art baseload plants. If the nation does not resume prudently modernizing the baseload fleet soon, the timely retirement of the oldest nuclear and coal plants will be impractical.

Only 44 baseload plants are currently under construction in the continental U.S. If all 44 projects are completed, which is hardly certain, they would add no more than 24,000 megawatts of baseload generating capacity. At this rate, the baseload fleet would not be modernized for some 68 years, not until the year 2079. This rate is actually more alarming when other factors are taken into account, like demand growth for power, expiring licenses of the oldest nuclear plants and air emissions of the oldest coal plants. Consistent with this trend, only 18 baseload plants were completed during the January 2010 – February 2011 period adding just 13,000 megawatts.

It is also troubling that in 15 of the 49 continental U.S. states and the District of Columbia, no baseload plants have been completed since January 2010 nor are any under construction. Texas and North Carolina alone account for one-quarter of all the new capacity.

This disturbing situation is unsurprising since a proposal to construct a baseload plant must typically navigate multiple regulatory processes, each of which can be leveraged by opponents to run up the development time, costs and risks and sully the reputation of the proposing utility or energy company. The regulatory culture of many states makes it all too easy for intractable opponents to mire and string out a process as regulators strive for consensus and shun decisions that would outrage opponents.

Fortunately, the problem is eminently fixable....

http://www.powergenworldwide.com/etc/medialib/new-lib/powergenportal/online-articles/2011/05.Par.17562.File.dat//Volumes/UserData/Users/sharrynd/Desktop/build%20Energy.pdf

Coal and nuclear, nuclear and coal - two sides of the same coin.

[kristopher]

1. I thought this would give the fission fans the chance to show that they are competing with coal

instead of actually ensuring the preservation of the system built around coal and thereby, coal itself...