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Who Turned Off the Lights?
Townhall.com ^ | May 15, 2018 | Stephen Moore

Posted on 05/15/2018 8:50:57 AM PDT by Kaslin

Is anyone paying attention to the crisis that is going on in our electric power markets?

Over the past six months, at least four major nuclear power plants have been slated for shutdown, including the last one in operation in California. Meanwhile, dozens of coal plants have been shuttered as well -- despite low prices and cleaner coal. Some of our major coal companies may go into bankruptcy.

This is a dangerous game we are playing with our most valuable resource outside of clean air and water. Traditionally, we've received almost half our electric power nationwide from coal and nuclear power, and for good reason. They are cheap, highly resilient and reliable.

The disruption to coal and nuclear power wouldn't be disturbing if this were happening as a result of market forces. That's only partially the case.

The amazing shale oil and gas revolution is providing Americans with cheap gas for home heating and power generation. Hooray. The price of natural gas has fallen by nearly two-thirds over the last decade, and this has put enormous price pressure on other forms of power generation.

But this is not a free-market story of Schumpeterian creative destruction. If it were, then wind and solar power would have been shut down years ago. They can't possibly compete on a level playing field with $3 natural gas.

In most markets, solar and wind power survive purely because the states mandate that as much as 30 percent of residential and commercial power come from these sources. The utilities have to buy it regardless of price. The California state legislature just mandated solar panels for homes built after 2020 (an added construction cost of about $10,000 per home).

Is anyone paying attention to the crisis that is going on in our electric power markets?

Over the past six months, at least four major nuclear power plants have been slated for shutdown, including the last one in operation in California. Meanwhile, dozens of coal plants have been shuttered as well -- despite low prices and cleaner coal. Some of our major coal companies may go into bankruptcy.

This is a dangerous game we are playing with our most valuable resource outside of clean air and water. Traditionally, we've received almost half our electric power nationwide from coal and nuclear power, and for good reason. They are cheap, highly resilient and reliable.

The disruption to coal and nuclear power wouldn't be disturbing if this were happening as a result of market forces. That's only partially the case.

The amazing shale oil and gas revolution is providing Americans with cheap gas for home heating and power generation. Hooray. The price of natural gas has fallen by nearly two-thirds over the last decade, and this has put enormous price pressure on other forms of power generation.

But this is not a free-market story of Schumpeterian creative destruction. If it were, then wind and solar power would have been shut down years ago. They can't possibly compete on a level playing field with $3 natural gas.

In most markets, solar and wind power survive purely because the states mandate that as much as 30 percent of residential and commercial power come from these sources. The utilities have to buy it regardless of price. The California state legislature just mandated solar panels for homes built after 2020 (an added construction cost of about $10,000 per home).


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: energy

1 posted on 05/15/2018 8:50:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Deja vu.


2 posted on 05/15/2018 8:55:54 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (President Trump divides Americans . . . from anti-Americans.)
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To: Kaslin

Let’s all go out and buy an electric car. That will fix things!


3 posted on 05/15/2018 8:59:10 AM PDT by woodenickel
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To: Kaslin

Hugely important issue highlighting sound infrastructure adults are not running things.
The Swamp runs everything and are repeatedly broadcasting what’s ahead...

Dark Sky exercise slated for May 15-17 at sites ... - Wisconsin.gov
dma.wi.gov/DMA/news/2018news/18065Proxy Highlight

1 day ago ... MADISON, Wis. — A full-scale training
exercise simulating a long-term mass power outage in Wisconsin kicks off May 15 at sites around the ...

Mass power outage simulation exercise “Dark Sky” to take place ...
https://www.cbs58.com/news/mass-power-outage-...Proxy Highlight

18 hours ago ... SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN (CBS
58) — The Wisconsin National Guard is teaming


4 posted on 05/15/2018 9:00:26 AM PDT by MarchonDC09122009 (When is our next march on DC? When have we had enough?)
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To: Kaslin

Not your fault!

I just love it when an article repeats itself.

Not your fault!

I just love it when an article repeats itself.


5 posted on 05/15/2018 9:00:55 AM PDT by Don W (When blacks riot, neighbourhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn.)
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To: Kaslin

That nuclear plant looks like a coal fired generation plant


6 posted on 05/15/2018 9:06:04 AM PDT by Thibodeaux (Long Live the Republic!)
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To: Kaslin

This a ploy to force the wider adoption of both solar and wind power generation - both of which are notoriously unreliable and often must be located far from the actual point of use. What happens, for every kW of expected power supply from these sources, an equal or greater supply has to come from “back-up” or “auxiliary” power generation from natural gas-fired power plants, whether a conventional steam-generated system that drives the dynamos, or a gas turbine that turns the dynamos directly.

While the steam plant can provide a baseline power supply, the gas turbine plants can spool up within a very short time as power demands increase beyond the baseline, or when the alternative energy sources fail, as must happen at night, or when the wind stops blowing.

We have the technology to introduce Thorium-fueled Molten Salt reactors as the primary and base-line power sources, and without the long-term spent fuel storage problems of Uranium-fueled Light Water reactors, which also have radiation leakage and “China syndrome” as additional engineering problems.

We can do this, but at the moment there is no will nor economic incentive to do so. Can’t make plutonium bombs out of the spent fuel from a thorium plant.

These thorium plants have the added advantage of being able to use the “spent” fuel rods now in long-term storage as the seeding necessary to initiate the reaction within the thorium pile. This way, these “spent” rods are used up centuries before they finish up their remaining half-life of radioactive decay, making it unnecessary to maintain a safe storage for some 25,000 years.

I see a LOT of “win-win” here.


7 posted on 05/15/2018 9:14:17 AM PDT by alloysteel (Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.)
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To: Kaslin

Millennial hipsters all want their electric cars, but don’t want any new power generation built.
Truthfully, not even do called “renewable energy” sources because they “block nature’s beauty”.


8 posted on 05/15/2018 9:22:12 AM PDT by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: Darksheare
Millennial hipsters all want their electric cars, but don’t want any new power generation built.

How about installing one of these?


9 posted on 05/15/2018 9:38:17 AM PDT by rjsimmon (The Tree of Liberty Thirsts)
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To: alloysteel

Concur. EE here.


10 posted on 05/15/2018 9:39:05 AM PDT by Blue_Spark
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To: alloysteel
We have the technology to introduce Thorium-fueled Molten Salt reactors as the primary and base-line power sources, and without the long-term spent fuel storage problems of Uranium-fueled Light Water reactors, which also have radiation leakage and “China syndrome” as additional engineering problems.

I explored the feasibility of standing up a thorium salt reactor with some of my co-workers. My co-workers are nuclear physicists with a PhD in the field. Many years working in nuclear weapons as well as reactors. The Thorium units still require some feed of U-238 to keep them running. Not nearly as much as conventional boiling water plants with fuel rods, but not a zero amount either. Some of the staff have been working on the pebble designs as well.

We have a huge liability with the existing Fukushima style units in operation. An EMP that takes the grid down will turn all of them into Fukushima level events in about 3 weeks. Commercial power is required to keep the cooling equipment running. Onsite backup generators carry 3 days to 3 weeks of fuel. Even after a shutdown, the spent fuel rods need to be cooled. Unlike France, we haven't embarked on a fuel reprocessing to reconstitute "spent" rods. That almost happened near Idaho Falls. I was even considering signing up to work there. The finances fell apart. The site sits fallow today.

11 posted on 05/15/2018 11:01:00 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Jeff Chandler

You can say that again.


12 posted on 05/15/2018 11:22:06 AM PDT by T. P. Pole
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To: rjsimmon

Lol, they wish.


13 posted on 05/15/2018 1:04:40 PM PDT by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: Kaslin
Schumpeterian:

Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883 - 1950) was an economist and one of the 20th century's greatest intellectuals. He is best known for his 1942 book “Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy,” as well as the theory of dynamic economic growth known as “creative destruction.”

'Thought the word might have been derived from Chuckie Schumer.

Hmmm...That can't be an Ayn Rand image at Google...

14 posted on 05/16/2018 2:11:50 AM PDT by Does so (Let's make the word Mohammedism--adding it to other ISMs...)
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To: Don W

Repetition seems to become more and more common. I don’t have a clue what is behind all this repetition of the same words, do you?


15 posted on 05/18/2018 4:15:39 AM PDT by RipSawyer
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To: Kaslin

If something’s worth saying, it’s worth saying twice.


16 posted on 05/18/2018 4:21:17 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Hillary: Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 2 billion dollars.)
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