Another Option for Clean Electricity - Wind/Solar Plus SMRs in Nebraska

Wind Energy / Resource Evaluation

Barry Butterfield opines that Nebraska publicly owned power systems have what it takes to generate clean, reliable power. Especially at a time when there is an urgent need for carbon mitigation, implementing policies that achieve emissions-reduction goals is critically important, even if the economic and environmental benefits are not immediate. Nebraska should be a pioneer in this effort. To lead public utilities into an era of carbon-free, baseload power, Nebraska utilities ought to consider the use of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).

A SMR uses U fuel to produce carbon-free electricity at a cost that is competitive with solar and wind power. It can produce that electricity around the clock, when the sun does not shine and when the wind does not blow. It is factory-built, shippable by rail or truck and, because of its modularity, it can be used to provide electricity-generating capacity at a single site of any size. It is also safe. It cannot melt down, nor can it have malfunctions that lead to incidents such as Three Mile Island or Fukushima. A key benefit of the SMR that makes its use in Nebraska worth considering is this ... It can load follow wind. This means that the SMR output can be adjusted as the demand for electricity fluctuates throughout the day. Why is this important? Because it provides a reliable, carbon-free backup source for wind power.

As noted in a World-Herald article last November, wind energy, the fastest-growing source of electricity in the U.S., is transforming low-income rural areas in ways not seen since the federal government gave land to homesteaders 150 years ago. As commodity prices threaten to reach decade lows and farmers struggle to meet debt payments, wind has saved family farms across a wide swath of the heartland. Although wind energy is important to Nebraska farmers and is a carbon-free source of electricity, it is not reliable enough.