The nuclear energy industry accounted for just nearly a tenth of all power grid retirements in the first half of this year, the government’s independent energy reported Wednesday.
The decline stems from one plant closure: Michigan’s Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, which shuttered for good May 20 and removed roughly 769 megawatts (MW) of electricity from the grid, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its report.
The nuclear industry’s contribution to capacity losses was relatively small compared with other sectors, EIA said. Coal-fired power plants made up around 76% of retirements over the last six months and natural gas plant closures came in at around 12%. Overall, the U.S. power grid lost around 8.8 gigawatts of generating capacity in the first half of 2022, EIA said.
In April, the energy auditor reported that the U.S. nuclear power industry was slated to lose around 3,000 MW of generating capacity over the next three years.
After Palisades’ closure, the planned shutdown of California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant in 2024 and 2025 would tack on an additional 2,200 MW of capacity losses, EIA said in the April 8 report.
Although two new reactors are supposed to come online this year and next at Georgia’s Alvin W. Vogtle plant, the roughly 2,200 MW of new generation would not be enough to offset projected losses, EIA said.
The state of Michigan, meanwhile, has not completely given up on restarting Palisades, even though the plant has transitioned to decommissioning.
