#DataCenters could set back #climate progress

#AI, #cryptocurrency ‘mining’ and our #digital lifestyles imperil the #energy transition — and the planet.

Jonathan Thompson
June 27, 2024

"In 2018, California utility regulators approved a plan to shutter #DiabloCanyon’s two nuclear reactors in 2024 and 2025. Doing so would deprive the state’s grid of 2,323 megawatts of generating capacity, but Pacific Gas & Electric, the plant’s operator, and a coalition of labor and environmental groups proposed replacing the lost power with renewables. The plant kicked out enough juice to light up about 1.7 million homes, but replacing that power seemed feasible, especially since PG&E predicted that demand would steadily decline over time, as more folks put solar on their roofs and slashed their energy consumption.

"#ProNnuclear eco-modernists, who see atomic fission as a primary way to avoid the climate catastrophe, mourned the imminent loss of so much carbon-free power. But clean energy advocates hailed it as a sign of the impending energy transition — a move away from gluttonous power consumption into a system where we use much less electricity and generate more of it from solar panels.

"Now, however, the whole scenario has been turned on its head: Diablo Canyon’s reactors are poised to continue fissioning atoms for the foreseeable future. Contrary to #PG&E’s optimistic projections, society, in general, is growing even hungrier for power.

"Diablo Canyon remains a symbol of the energy transition, no doubt, but not in the way people once hoped. Now its continued existence represents a transition gone awry.

"If you look at the supply side alone, you could be fooled into thinking that the energy transition is still going strong. #Solar-generating capacity in California has doubled in the last six years. On multiple occasions this spring, #renewable energy sources supplied more than 100% of the total electricity demand on California’s grid in the afternoon, when solar output peaks. Even more notable is the growth of grid-scale battery storage in the state, jumping from 770 megawatts in 2019 to more than 10,000 now. On one day in April, battery storage discharge became the largest energy source on California’s grid.

"On the demand side, however, things have gone haywire. Earlier this month, PG&E CEO Patti Poppe predicted that the utility’s load — or the amount of power consumed — would double by 2040. Poppe is not exaggerating; #Texas grid operators expect demand to double there in just six years. Some of this added load was foreseeable. Human-caused #ClimateChange is increasing temperatures, transforming energy-intensive air conditioning from a luxury to a life-or-death necessity. And all those #Teslas and other electric vehicles [#EVs] you see cruising on the highway? They need to be charged, even as more folks are switching out their dirty natural gas appliances for electric ones.

"But back in 2018, few anticipated the incredibly rapid buildup of all the electricity-sucking data centers that we would need to process our credit card payments, all the computing we do, our constant #GoogleSearches and the endless movies we stream. Those demands, meanwhile, pale in comparison to the huge power consumption required to mine a single bitcoin or process a generative AI operation. And together they are threatening to overwhelm power supplies altogether, straining the grid and throwing a digital wrench into the energy transition."

Read more:
https://www.hcn.org/articles/do-data-centers-mean-doomsville-for-renewable-energy/

Application Filed to Extend Life of #DiabloCanyon Power Plant Another 20 Years

PG&E Submits Application with #NRC to Renew Plant’s License

By Jean Yamamura
Wed Nov 08, 2023

"Renewal of Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s license was formally filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by owner #PacificGasAndElectric Company on November 7, more than a month ahead of the end of 2023 deadline. The 2,200 megawatts of carbon-free power generated by the nuclear plant can provide electricity for as many as three million of #California’s 39 million residents, fully 17 percent of the state’s supply of zero-carbon electricity, according to PG&E. But is it still needed?

"A number of groups fighting the nuclear power plant contend a potential for disaster exists from the aging facility, finished in 1973. Nonprofits like the #MothersForPeace in San Luis Obispo, where the plant is located, and the #AllianceForNuclearResponsibility argue that questions about brittle welds and nearby earthquake faults remain unanswered. Friends of the Earth is seeking to overturn the NRC’s licensing procedure for Diablo in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

"The NRC agreed to shorten the five-year window for the license renewal, causing #FriendsOfTheEarth’s legal director, Hallie Templeton, to say: “PG&E’s reckless push to extend the life of Diablo Canyon, while unsurprising, should set off alarm bells for everyone living near this high-risk facility. Diablo Canyon’s operations are extremely dangerous, harmful to the climate and put all of California at risk of a catastrophic accident.”

"In answer to the question of safety at a nuclear facility located 90 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, PG&E’s chief nuclear officer, Paula Gefen, said, 'We have a dedicated workforce that is committed to operating DCPP with integrity and safety at the forefront.' [PG&E is known for greed and poor safety record keeping -- see link in comments]

"During this shortened window, PG&E has a number of state agencies to persuade in addition to the NRC: It received a lease extension from the State Lands Commission in June for the strip of beach it uses, but the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission are assessing actual costs and outage costs against renewed operations and market revenues. Their documents are underway or in a comment period and are supposed to be final before the end of 2023.

"If PG&E’s license renewal application passes muster, Diablo would be allowed to operate beyond its current end dates of 2024 and 2025, while the application is further reviewed, said PG&E spokesperson Suzanne Hosn. The process takes longer than a year, after which PG&E would submit for #CoastalZoneManagement ct recertification with the California Coastal Commission.

"Bruce Severance, a regulatory compliance engineer, has argued that certain welds, known to be #faulty from Reactor One’s inception, are so #brittle that replacement of the #ReactorVessel was a considerable cost the CPUC must consider. Severance and Digby MacDonald, a nuclear engineering and materials science professor at UC Berkeley, submitted a paper to the Diablo Canyon Independent Safety Committee outlining the #fracture toughness problem with the welds, but that committee won’t be meeting to discuss their conclusions until February 2024.

As for the need for Diablo to continue generating electricity, David Weisman of the #AllianceForNuclearResponsibility pointed to Governor Gavin Newsom’s statement in October that California’s #battery storage capacity reached more than 6,600 megawatts: 'More than equivalent to the power Diablo generates,' Weisman said.

"The turmoil surrounding the nuclear power plant began after PG&E decided to abandon its application for a license renewal in 2016. That would have shuttered the power plant’s two reactors in 2024 and 2025. However, Governor Newsom deemed the power was needed in the face of air-conditioning use during California’s increasingly hot summers. The State Legislature passed Senate Bill 846 last fall to loan PG&E $1.4 billion and extend Diablo’s operations to 2030.

"The CPUC held a hearing on Tuesday, at which Linda Seeley of #MothersForPeace addressed the commissioners. She told them California was on track to add another 6,000MW in #renewable power by 2026, three times Diablo’s output. Regarding safety, she said, 'while the Legislature and the CPUC have been relying on the NRC to ensure the safe operation of Diablo Canyon past the reactors’ 2024/2025 license expiration dates, the NRC itself appears to be bending to the State requests — rather than protecting the public.'

"Seeley emphasized the decision to prolong Diablo’s life could not be a political one. 'Put it together,' she urged the commissioners. 'No inspection of the Unit 1 pressure vessel since 2002; active #earthquake faults under the plant — couple those conditions with the fact that we don’t even need the power from Diablo Canyon, and you can easily reach a decision that your grandchildren will thank you for.'"

#TEPCOLies #Fukushima #RethinkNotRestart #Japan #PG&E #NRC #IAEA #NoNukes #NoNewNukes #PriceAndersonAct