{"id":116646,"date":"2026-01-01T22:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/116646\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T22:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:10:13","slug":"california-needs-both-clean-energy-and-a-nuclear-power-backstop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/116646\/","title":{"rendered":"California needs both clean energy and a nuclear-power backstop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Diablo<\/a>The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. (File photo courtesy pf PG&E)<\/p>\n

This column\u00a0was originally published by CalMatters.\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

Sure, California can swear off fossil fuels and shut down its nuclear plants, powering itself entirely with wind, water, and sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All it takes is getting used to weekly rolling blackouts.\n<\/p>\n

\"Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

Some energy predictions are tricky; this one isn\u2019t. We can estimate how much electricity each solar panel and wind turbine will produce, and when they\u2019ll produce it. Then we can plug those numbers into a computer, along with green advocates\u2019 optimistic projections of future electricity demand, to see how supply and demand match up on an hourly and seasonal basis.<\/p>\n

Even with vastly expanded battery storage capacity to smooth things out, the match is poor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

California will sometimes generate renewable energy in abundance, but grid operators will still face tough choices \u2014 such as disconnecting generators when there\u2019s too much sun and little demand or firing up fossil-fuel based gas turbines when there\u2019s no sun or wind at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During much of the year, especially in late summer and throughout December and January, solar and wind power will meet demand for some hours but not have enough excess to charge the batteries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

California might generate as much energy from wind and sun as it uses overall, but not when it\u2019s needed. To keep the power flowing, the state will actually need up to 80 gigawatts of gas-fired backup capacity \u2014 far more than it has today \u2014 or risk repeated shortfalls.<\/p>\n

Eighty gigawatts is enormous. California\u2019s current peak demand is just over 52 gigawatts, but by 2050 \u2014 with millions of\u00a0electric vehicles<\/a>, heat pumps, and\u00a0energy-hungry data centers<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 electric demand will be far higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keeping all that backup generation on standby won\u2019t come cheap. The cost of maintaining this fossil fuel capacity must be added to the already high cost of intermittent renewables like solar and wind.<\/p>\n

A system powered solely by\u00a0solar<\/a>,\u00a0wind<\/a>, and\u00a0hydro<\/a>\u00a0isn\u2019t an engineering strategy; it\u2019s a belief system. Zealotry and energy reliability don\u2019t mix.<\/p>\n

Some zealots who advocate for an all-renewable energy future have\u00a0offered unrealistic scenarios<\/a>\u00a0for powering California while eliminating carbon emissions. Our recent studies show their plan for California would\u00a0leave it short of power<\/a>\u00a0at least 50 days a year.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s official energy plan isn\u2019t much better. A new grid simulator \u2014 the Hourly Electric Grid Analysis, or HELGA \u2014 compares expected demand with renewable output on an hour-by-hour basis. It shows California\u2019s plan would\u00a0cost nearly a trillion dollars<\/a>\u00a0yet still require the grid to burn almost as much natural gas as it does today.<\/p>\n

Like every other state, California will need large, zero-carbon generators that operate independently of the weather to meet its climate goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Realistically, that means nuclear power.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fleet of advanced reactors running around the clock can provide reliable, carbon-free electricity. New designs \u2014 such as Bill Gates\u2019s\u00a0Natrium<\/a>\u00a0reactor with molten salt thermal storage \u2014 are engineered to ramp output up and down in response to grid demand. Others will\u00a0operate continuously<\/a>, supplying the grid or charging storage systems as needed.<\/p>\n

California can reach its climate goals, but not through blind adherence to ideology. Clean, reliable power is possible, but only if the state faces reality about what it takes to get there.<\/p>\n

Leonard Rodberg is a theoretical physicist by training who later became a professor Urban Studies at Queens College of City University of New York. He wrote this for CalMatters<\/a>\u00a0is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe, explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. (File photo courtesy pf PG&E) This column\u00a0was originally published by CalMatters.\u00a0Sign up\u00a0for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[62086,7,9,8,6752,9190,62087,8304,3016],"class_list":["post-116646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-blackouts","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-calmatters","tag-clean-energy","tag-nuclear-power","tag-solar","tag-wind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}