U.S. nuclear electricity generation will continue its downward trend as more power plants close down in the coming years, the federal government’s independent energy auditor said in a recent report.
Generation losses from reactor retirements contributed to a net U.S. nuclear electricity output of 778 million megawatt-hours (MWh) in 2021, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report published April 8. That figure has been steadily declining since 2017 or so, EIA said — six nuclear plants have shut down since then.
The country is slated to lose around another 3,000 megawatts (MW) of capacity in the next three years, the report said. Michigan’s Palisades plant, which is scheduled for shutdown in May, should represent a loss of roughly 769 MW. The Diablo Canyon plant in California could add another 2,200 MW or so to those losses if the site’s two reactors shutter as planned in 2024 and 2025, EIA said.
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 added capacity would not be enough to offset projected losses, the report said.
“Although output has been rising from renewable energy sources and from turbine plants using natural gas, the U.S. nuclear fleet continues to operate at high and consistent utilization rates,” EIA said. “Financial pressures from competitive wholesale power markets remain the primary cause of nuclear power plant retirements.”
As part of November’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Joe Biden administration unlocked around $6 billion in federal funding to be auctioned off to economically-troubled nuclear plant operators over a five-year period. The Department of Energy is tasked by law to develop a competitive process for allocating that cash — a framework which the agency is still hammering out.
