“NuScale’s estimated ‘levelized cost of energy’ (LCOE) … jumped by one-half last December (to $89/MWh from $58/WMh). The total cost for the project is estimated at a bit over $9 billion, but $1.4 billion is offset by DOE funding, which could increase in the future.”

More news, more problems regarding the live projects being counted on as the beginning of a new era of nuclear power. Back in the 1950s/1960s, the expectation was that learning-by-doing and scale economies would bring parity with fossil-fuel plants. Today, that same goal seems distant.

NuScale

NuScale Power’s small modular reactor project, designed to provide electricity to Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, a joint action agency serving 50 municipal utilities in Utah, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming, has survived another near-death experience. Facing a vote by the participants in its project for six light-water pressurized reactors, totaling 462-MW on the grounds of the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls.…

“Why should a thermal plant spend money in a government-rigged market that threatens a reasonable profit? Why should the plant even remain in the market under these conditions?”

“For IVREs it’s a no-risk deal, with markets guaranteed and taxpayers country-wide adding profits. But what about the need for reliable power?”

This two-part post (Part II here) is a follow-up to Robert Bradley’s recent IER article, “Wind, Solar, and the Great Texas Blackout: Guilty as Charged.” His article discussed how regulatory shifts and subsidies favoring Intermittently Variable Renewable Energy (IVRE) producers resulted in prematurely lost capacity, a lack of new capacity, and upgrade issues with remaining (surviving) traditional capacity. These three factors–“the why behind the why”–explain the perfect storm that began with (or was revealed by) Storm Uri.

Part I below describes how the market was originally meant to work–but has not worked given the governmentally redesigned power market, beginning with generation.…

“Though Martis’s crusade hasn’t been covered much by national media, clean energy advocates say it’s actively hamstringing the fight against climate change in the Midwest. A clean energy executive told HEATED and Distilled that if Martis gets to a community before them, their projects are almost certain to be blocked by the local government. The executive asked for anonymity in fear of being targeted by Martis.” (Heated, below)

“This piece is part of a new round of hits on people like myself who advocate for equitable siting of renewable energy projects. This new assault is being driven by current efforts in the Midwest by the renewable energy lobby to take away local control of wind and solar zoning precisely because it is demonstrably so unpopular and faces an ever-larger backlash.” (Martis, below)

“Meet the man fueling clean energy opposition in the Midwest” by Michael Thomas is the latest from Heated, self-described as “A newsletter for people who are pissed off about the climate crisis.”…

“The Judge deemed that carefully cracking some glass to try to sound the alarm in the financial world, and demand Barclays and others like them stop financing the BAU death project, was sufficiently serious an ‘offence’ to pass the ‘custodial threshold’.” (Zoe Cohen, defendant)

Climate Activists Guilty of Smashing Barclays HQ Windows Spared Jail, The Guardian headline last Friday read. “Women were found guilty of causing £100,000 damage to building in Canary Wharf, London.”

Reported a jubilant defendant Zoe Cohen:

Well, I’m a #free #woman… Relieved and happy to be home with my family, and full of #gratitude for the incredible support I and the #Barclays7 have received from so many people

Here’s a short video from the Press Association (2 mins) just after we left Southwark Crown Court after 5pm on Friday.