Diablo Canyon Proposal: A Turning Point for the U.S. Nuclear Industry?

SUGAR LAND--July 20, 2016--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Last month's proposal by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) (San Francisco, California) to not extend the license of its two-unit Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Station show how far and how fast the U.S Power market is changing. In recent years, PG&E's brethren nuclear utilities in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Vermont and Massachusetts have decided to close operating reactors that could not compete against low-cost natural gas-fired generators. Those utilities plan to replace their foregone nuclear generating capacity with some combination of gas-fired generation, renewable energy and energy-efficiency programs. PG&E, on the other hand, proposes to rely solely on non-carbon-emitting resources to offset the loss of Diablo Canyon's 2,240 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity. Within this article: Details Pacific Gas & Electric Company energy plans for California Additional companies: PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG)