Jon Wellinghoff is not being shy about his vision for power supply. The new chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a big promoter of the smart grid, demand response and renewables, believes the US may never see another new nuclear or coal plant.
The question right now may be no more than theoretical, he said at a United States Energy Association press briefing this morning, since costs are too high -- nuclear costs he cited as roughly $7,000/kW and advanced coal as similarly daunting. But even in the long term, Wellinghoff suggested, these traditional baseload sources may just not be needed.
In fact, our colleague Chris Newkumet reports, Wellinghoff said the very notion of baseload capacity may be "an anachronism."
Traditionally the idea of baseload has to do with the least-expensive power being dispatched first, he said, but in the new energy world, "wind is going to be cheapest." Once grid operators can shape the output from wind and other renewables, "we won't need fossil fuel plants to run all the time."
Renewables are poised to fill the resource gap and strong natural gas reserves and load-response-leveling programs could just price nuclear and coal out of the market, Wellinghoff said.
"Natural gas is going to be there for a while," the chairman said, noting that production companies have discovered that "we have twice as much" gas in the US than previously thought. The supply, and other factors, should keep gas relatively inexpensive "for a while," he said.
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