The report details a step-by-step plan to replace the Oyster Creek, Salem 1 and 2 nuclear power plants at the end of their current operating licenses with renewable energy and energy efficiency.
"Governor Corzine has an urgent choice to make,"Â said Suzanne Leta Liou, Global Warming and Clean Energy Advocate for Environment New Jersey and co-author of the report. "He can ensure New Jersey is on track for a new energy future or he can continue our reliance on dirty, dangerous sources of power."Â
On March 31st, the Corzine Administration's Energy Master Plan committee released draft computer modeling assumptions for the state's electricity sector. These assumptions are critical because they include expectations about power plant operation, transmission lines, clean energy generation and energy efficiency measures until the year 2020. Currently, the draft assumptions include twenty-year license extensions for all of the state's nuclear plants and dramatic increases of in-state conventional power plant generation and electricity imports from out-of-state.
"Key components of the Energy Master Plan's draft modeling assumptions put public health and safety at risk and sharply contradict Governor Corzine's Executive Order to reduce the state's global warming pollution,"Â said Leta Liou. "The Energy Master Plan committee must make major revisions to these assumptions to develop a comprehensive clean energy strategy."Â
The Oyster Creek, Salem 1 and 2 plants, which pose environmental, health and safety concerns, are currently scheduled to retire between 2009 and 2020. Cumulatively, the three plants account for about 17 percent of New Jersey's electricity generation capacity. In the next few months, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to decide on Exelon Corp.'s proposed twenty-year license extension for Oyster Creek, which, if granted, would make New Jersey home to the oldest operating nuclear power plant in the world. Although he has yet to employ them, Governor Corzine can use several regulatory tools that could necessitate the plant's closure at the end of its current operating license in 2009.
"New Jersey can't afford the nuclear option when it has the chance to have an incredible future through clean energy technology that not only grows the economy but also makes New Jersey a healthier, safer place to live,"Â said Jeff Tittel, Executive Director of the Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter.
"Powering New Jersey's Future"Â shows that New Jersey can retire the Oyster Creek, Salem 1 and 2 nuclear power plants without sacrificing the reliability of the state's electricity system, without investing in significant new fossil fuel or nuclear power plant capacity, or relying on additional electricity imports from out-of-state. Specifically, the report outlines the following clean energy strategies that have the potential to fill the gap left by the Oyster Creek and Salem plant closures:
"¢ Energy efficiency improvements are the cheapest and fastest way to meet New Jersey's escalating power needs. Taking full advantage of cost-effective efficiency improvements would reduce peak electricity demand by approximately 4,186 MW by 2020.
"¢ Combined heat and power - which maximizes energy efficiency by using the waste heat from electricity generators to provide useful heat to industrial and commercial buildings - has the potential to alleviate up to 2,100 MW of peak electricity demand.
"¢ Achieving the solar power goals of New Jersey's renewable portfolio standard would result in 1,500 MW of solar power coming online by 2020 - enough to reduce peak electricity demand by 750 MW.
"¢ Wind power, particularly off the Jersey Shore, has the potential to supply more than 1,750 MW of power by 2020, enough to offset at least 350 MW of conventional power plant capacity.
"¢ Demand response programs - which can use a variety of mechanisms to encourage consumers to reduce power demand during peak periods - can account for 850 MW of peak demand reductions by 2020.
"New Jersey can be the beacon for a safe, clean energy future with alternative power and efficiencies or the harbinger of doom with increased reliance on coal. However and wherever generated, coal power is a double whammy against New Jerseyans - killing efforts to stem global warming and aggravating our state's already worst in the nation smog that leads to too many kids in emergency rooms with asthma attacks, too many premature deaths in the adult population, and too many lost work and school days,"Â said David Pringle, Campaign Director of the NJ Environmental Federation.
Achieving the targets in "Powering New Jersey's Future"Â would account for approximately 8,200 MW of electricity capacity through reduced demand and new efficient and renewable resources - enough to replace capacity from Oyster Creek, Salem 1 and 2.
"Without more action from Governor Corzine, New Jersey will become the national test case for a 60-year old nuclear reactor," said NJPIRG's Adam Garber. "Its time for the Governor to close these dinosaurs down and seize our potential for a safe, clean, affordable energy future."Â
New Jersey's existing Clean Energy Program has been a beacon for change. The state's energy efficiency programs have reduced electricity use by 450 megawatts-the same amount of electricity generated by a mid-sized power plant. New Jersey's first coastal wind farm in Atlantic City is up and running, and New Jersey has emerged as the fastest growing solar market in the nation, having gone from 6 solar installations to nearly 2,000 today.
New Jerseyans also understand the benefits of these programs. A June 2006 poll found that 87% of New Jerseyans think the state should be doing more to encourage energy efficiency and conservation and 88% think the state should be doing more to encourage the use of renewable energy sources. 81% pointed to Governor Corzine specifically as someone who should be doing more.
"New Jerseyans deserve the clean energy strategy outlined in this report,"Â said Janet Tauro, Co-Chair of the citizens' group Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety (GRAMMES). "We have been shortchanged for far too long."Â
"Along with our successes come new challenges, and now is the time to raise the bar even higher,"Â said Leta Liou. - USPIRG News
"Powering New Jersey's Future:..."
Two telling elements of this proposal should alert the public to the folly of shutting down efficient, reliable nuclear power plants. 1) The proposed generating capacity factor of the solar installation is about 50% of the installed capacity. 2) The proposed generating capacity of the wind power plants is much less than that of the solar plants. This is in contrast to nuclear power plant capacity factor which has been close to 90% nationwide for many years. The cost of relying on solar and wind for a large portion of our electricity is obvious! Power plants that run at such low levels of capacity are expensive and cannot be relied on for base load power.