Too cheap to meter



Lewis Strauss, former chair of the AEC, coined the phrase “too cheap to meter” referring to the potential for nuclear power. It was a phrase I grew up hearing in Oak Ridge TN, but it never came to be, there or anywhere else.

Now, the Wall Street Journal claims that day has arrived, not because of nuclear, but because of wind and solar:

“The changes sweeping Europe’s electricity markets, which were accelerated by the energy crisis brought on by the war in Ukraine, show what could happen in the U.S. in a few years when renewable capacity reaches a similar scale. In 2023, 44% of EU electricity was generated by renewables, compared with 21% in the U.S.

“In some U.S. markets—sunny California, the wind-swept Great Plains, and Texas—zero and negative prices are already common. The wholesale price in Southern California was negative nearly 20% of all hours this year because of the region’s boom in solar-panel installations.”

Currently (pun intended), the big problem with wind and solar is intermittency and the lack of economical storage. While that could in principle be bridged with nuclear, the most attractive choice for now is natural gas power plants, which can be fired up within minutes to respond to demand fluctuation. The promise of green energy is still awaiting technological transformation.

https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/electricity-that-costs-nothingor-even-less-its-happening-more-and-more-53f16e49?st=UW4wJf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

 

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