We need a powerful backup power source for wind and solar. Wind and solar are fine, except that most solar panels are made in China, which means that the US will be dependent on China for much of its power generation. Chinese companies produce over three-quarters of the world’s polysilicon, which is at the heart of solar panels. (Solar Power World: The US solar industry has a China problem. Chemical and Engineering News: The US solar industry has a supply problem.)
In the big picture, it is not clear that wind and solar alone can meet the power demands of the future. According to EIA, renewable sources currently produce about 21% of America’s electricity (wind 10%, hydropower 6%, solar 3%). Fossil fuels supply about 60% (natural gas 40%, coal 20%). Nuclear energy supplies 18%. Bloomberg reports that companies developing wind energy are facing financial problems from higher interest rates and more competition, particularly the Danish company Orsted.
Additionally, the US electrical grid is not set up for renewable power sources. It is a leftover of the old system where most of the energy came from large, fossil fuel power plants that were located relatively close to the population centers that needed the power. Now, wind and solar energy sources are usually located in rural areas or on the seacoast, often far from the cities that need the energy. The grid is not currently configured to handle that distribution efficiently. A CNBC article says:
The network of transmission lines that carry electricity across the U.S. is old and not set up to meet the anticipated demand for clean energy sources like wind and solar.
But inexpensive emissions-free sources of energy, like solar and wind, are only abundant in places where the sun shines or wind blows, and that’s not necessarily close to homes and businesses. Moreover, demand for electricity is going to rise as fossil fuels are gradually replaced for a whole host of other uses, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps.
Most of the U.S. electric grid was built in the 1960s and 1970s. Currently, over 70% of the U.S. electricity grid is more than 25 years old, according to the White House.
But inexpensive emissions-free sources of energy, like solar and wind, are only abundant in places where the sun shines or wind blows, and that’s not necessarily close to homes and businesses. Moreover, demand for electricity is going to rise as fossil fuels are gradually replaced for a whole host of other uses, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps.
Transmission infrastructure lasts between 50 and 80 years, according to a 2021 presentation from the advisory firm, the Brattle Group. Replacing transmission infrastructure that’s reaching its age limit is likely to costing an estimated $10 billion a year, according to the Brattle Group analysis.
Nuclear power has the advantage of being able to use the old grid infrastructure that was developed for large power stations near big population cneters. In addition, it can supply power on a very continuous, stable basis, not dependent on the weather or the sun. It can provide a transition between the current fossil fuel power model and the coming renewable fuel model. Planning for the future will require determining what this transition will look like. Currently nuclear power plants are very large, very expensive, and built to last decades. The nuclear industry is proposing several designs for smaller, cheaper, easier-to-build nuclear plants that might be appropriate for filling in places that need additional power close by. They would be built of modular components in factories that would ship the parts to where the plant would be constructed. However, none of these smaller, modular plants is yet in operation commercially. Their designs have not yet been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and some are designed to use nuclear fuel that is currently only available from Russia. This delay would argue for building more of the larger nuclear stations that we already know how to build. They take a long time to build; so, we should be started sooner rather than later if we are to meet the power demands of the next decades, when more and more functions that are currently supplied by fossil fuels (heating, transportation, manufacturing) will depend on electricity.
Nuclear power will be essential to meet this demand.