SLO Tribune - Solar and wind alone can't do it

Jennifer Klay’s Letter to the Editor, SLO Tribune, November 11, 2021

I was disappointed to read your editorial on Thursday, Nov 18, "Can an academic study breathe new life into Diablo Canyon? Don’t count on it".  It perpetuates the fallacy that solar and wind can meet our energy needs.  The truth is that we can't build enough solar and wind fast enough to meet our state's current electricity demand, let alone the increased demand if Diablo Canyon shuts down and we mandate our transportation sector go all electric.  Just as we saw with the closure of San Onofre, California's carbon emissions will go UP instead of down when Diablo Canyon closes, first because solar and wind require stable backup energy (currently provided mostly by fossil fuel burning) and second because we can't build capacity fast enough to meet the demand on the same timescale as our climate goals.  There is no feasible storage solution ready to step in and fill the gap. By all means keep researching and innovating, but the cheapest and fastest solution to meeting our carbon-emissions goals right now is lifetime extension of existing nuclear plants.  Instead of wishing for magical future solutions, we should be assiduously searching for ways to keep DCPP running beyond 2024-25.