The natural gas boom is killing America\u2019s nuclear industry. Wind and solar may finish the job.<\/p>\n
While nuclear plants struggle to compete with the flood of cheap gas coming from the nation\u2019s shale fields, they still offer a key advantage, supporters say: They generate 24-hour electricity without producing carbon emissions. Renewables, meanwhile, haven\u2019t yet nailed down the storage capacity needed to do that. Proponents insist it\u2019s only a matter of time.<\/p>\n
Battery prices have plunged 85% from 2010 through 2018, and huge storage plants are planned in California and Arizona. Meanwhile, science is advancing on new technology — including\u00a0chemical alternatives\u00a0to lithium-ion systems — with the potential to supply power for 100 hours straight, sun or no sun.<\/p>\n
All signs point to the acceleration of renewable energy that can out-compete nuclear and fossil fuels,\u201d said Jodie Van Horn, director of the Sierra Club\u2019s Ready for 100 campaign, a group seeking a grid powered solely by renewables.<\/p>\n
The drive for grids that are 100% emissions-free is being pushed by a growing number of U.S. states citing increasingly aggressive time frames. In July, New York\u00a0mandated\u00a0that 70% of the state\u2019s power come from renewables by 2030, and 100% by 2040. Seven other states, including California, have similar mandates, and Virginia\u2019s governor earlier this month\u00a0announced\u00a0an executive order calling for 100% clean energy there by 2050.<\/p>\n
Still, there remains a gap between now and 2050. \u201cTo get to 80%-to-85%, you can see a path to get there with today\u2019s technologies,\u201d said\u00a0Yayoi Sekine, an analyst with BloombergNEF. But using renewables to achieve the final 15%, \u201cthat\u2019s where the challenge really is.\u201d<\/p>\n
By 2050, BNEF expects renewables to account for 48% of the U.S. power system, paired with multiple types of supplemental, peaking plants that can supply electricity when needed.<\/p>\n
Today, these plants typically burn cheap gas, supplied by a muscled-up U.S. shale industry. By 2035, though, so-called battery peakers — large arrays that store energy when renewables are working at their peak, and send power when they\u2019re not — will be more\u00a0cost-competitive, according to BNEF forecasts. Meanwhile, over the same period, nuclear will wane, as high costs force most reactors to just shut down.<\/p>\n
The U.S. isn\u2019t the only place where the nuclear industry is struggling. Some nations that rely heavily on the technology, including France and Sweden, are reducing nuclear\u2019s load as old reactors retire, and diversifying into cheaper solar and wind power.<\/p>\n
Still, the industry has the potential to grow in countries where costs can be reduced through shorter construction times. Engineers in China have been able to build and connect nuclear plants in less than seven years, on average, while their counterparts in the U.S. and Europe need a decade or more.<\/p>\n
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