Offshore wind farms and other non-miracles are desperately needed NOW...

Dear Readers,

Should Californians be in favor of the proposed new marine sanctuary at Morro Bay (off the California coast)?

Of course we should! Why would ANYBODY be against a marine sanctuary -- especially one that also allows for a new offshore wind farm, right?

Allowing for more offshore wind energy development will help mitigate climate change and reduce California’s dependence on fossil fuels, and (best of all!) the Morro Bay wind energy project can quickly replace California's last two old, decrepit nuclear power reactors located at Diablo Canyon, on the edge of Morro Bay.

The idea of running transmission cables from the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area , skirting the edge of the newly created Chamash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary to feed California’s electricity grid, is the kind the energy future that makes sense for all Californians. It's not perfect, but nothing is or ever will be. And it's way better than the alternatives, that's for sure.

However, transmission is still the main issue holding up the project, and for an absolutely absurd reason: The Morro Bay offshore wind project would need to access the transmission capabilities that are currently used by the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (DCNPP).

Although the general ocean current flow in that area is from the north and DCNPP is a few miles south of Morro Bay, the Davidson Current actually flows from the south along the western coast of the United States (most of the year it is a subsurface current). Thus, DCNPP pollutes Morro Bay constantly with radioactive Tritium and other radioactive isotopes as well as thermal pollution in the general vicinity of the plant. The level of radioactive pollution will decrease substantially after DCNPP closes, but won't stop completely for a long, long time -- even if the most toxic nuclear waste on the site is moved somewhere eventually (which is unlikely any time in the near future -- that is, any time in the lifetime of anyone reading this around the time it is being written -- September, 2024).

Other sites around California and the United States are also stuck with thousands of tons of deadly toxic spent fuel. The spent fuel currently stored at DCNPP has nowhere to go, and nobody has a plan for final disposal of ANY spent nuclear fuel, which is millions of times MORE hazardous than"fresh" (unused) nuclear reactor fuel.

DCNPP's spent fuel is currently stored "temporarily" in "dry storage casks" and "spent fuel pools" at DCNPP. Adding to the existing nuclear waste by continuing to operate the reactors makes no sense (according to the nuclear industry itself, commercial nuclear reactors each create about 250 pounds of spent fuel nuclear waste per day).

The State of California and DCNPP’s operators (Pacific Gas and Electric) have reneged on their commitment to shut down DCNPP’s two reactors in 2024 and 2025, preventing the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area from accessing those transmission lines. The solution is not to block the development of offshore wind. The ONLY proper solution is to shut down DCNPP as originally agreed to -- before some highly embrittled part fails, or an operator makes a mistake (as happened at Three Mile Island in 1979 just months after it opened, and as has happened at countless other reactors over the years).

A meltdown at DCNPP would destroy the Central California coast, Morro Bay, and who knows how much more of California and planet Earth.

The only way we will ever be able to reverse climate change -- as we must do -- is to embrace solutions that completely replace fossil-fuels and nuclear power with renewable energy (wind-water-solar (WWS)). Because of their intermittency, WWS energy sources also require new solutions for storing and distributing energy. But NONE of these are "killer" problems, though they require thought and planning to resolve properly.

Mark Z. Jacobson’s (MZJ's) groundbreaking 2023 book, “No Miracles Needed: How Today's Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air” carefully analyzes why WWS is the best possible solution to the climate crisis. The book lays out a detailed roadmap for how the entire planet can quickly move towards the goal of 100% WWS-powered electricity, heating, cooling, and transportation.

No Miracles Needed doesn’t assume that we already have all the "best" solutions to solve the climate problem -- better ones come along all the time these days -- but we already have enough technology to solve the problem, if only we are willing to try.

No Miracles Needed looks at the causes of climate change and presents a summary of the best available solutions that can be implemented quickly, so that society can stop making things worse day by day, and can even begin to reverse the global damage our current energy policies cause. No Miracles Needed also shows how WWS has been getting cheaper and easier to implement as technologies have improved tremendously in recent years.

For example, MZJ points out that: “The annual average capacity factor of wind turbines in the United States increased from 25.2 percent for those installed between 1998 and 2001 to 41.4 for those installed between 2014 and 2019." And they got larger, too.

At each step of the analysis, MZJ considers the pros and cons of currently available solutions (including economic issues). MZJ and his team analyzed the near-term potential for various solutions, accounting for variations across different climates, cultures, and existing infrastructure. Using this data, his team developed detailed plans for each place they studied, mapping a path that results in a customized WWS solution.

With the current infrastructure, transmission losses are a major cost and efficiency drain. Many WWS technologies greatly reduce transmission distances. It’s natural to think of rooftop solar this way, but MZJ also points out that “Offshore renewables often require short transmission distances … because most people in the world live along the coasts … the growth of offshore renewables will increase the efficiency of the transmission and distribution system.”

MZJ also addresses unintended consequences that can cripple renewable projects, and offers data and solutions that can help. For example, “…painting just one of the wind turbine’s three blades black…reduced bird mortalities by 72 percent compared with…unpainted turbines.”

“No Miracles Needed” explains some simple, sensible choices we can make now -- collectively (with offshore wind, for example) and individually (with heat pumps, solar power, etc.) that can pave the way to a sustainable future as quickly as possible. MZJ's target date for 100% WWS energy is 2035: Optimistic, but he presents convincing arguments that this target is completely feasible. However we need to discard a lot of old thinking to do it. Getting people to think differently is actually the hardest part, but it should NOT be an impossible hurdle.

The choices MZJ outlines make it possible to envision a future where there is plenty of energy, everybody is healthier (less air pollution), climate change is reversed -- and best of all: No more nuclear meltdowns. Ever.

“No Miracles Needed” considers the constraints that make energy choices difficult, including economic constraints and politically unpopular decisions that might have to be made. But as the title of the book says, we do not need miracles, or even new technology, to take the first steps -- huge steps -- towards a WWS energy future.

With a little preparation, DCNPP could be have been shut down already, without any impact to California electricity stability or prices. Unfortunately, poor preparation up this point means if DCNPP were to suddenly be permanently shut down, some blackouts and higher prices might occur for a short while -- but ONLY because neither the California political system nor the utilities have been preparing for this inevitable moment. Such problems would not last long or be widespread, and with a little preparation, there won't be any.

Ace Hoffman, Carlsbad, California USA

(For a recent news article about the Morro Bay marine sanctuary and the associated wind project see:

https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/environment/article292023465.html

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This essay is available online here:

https://acehoffman.blogspot.com/2024/09/offshore-wind-farms-and-other-non.html

Recently, I've posted some new essays online (with pictures!). (Some were also distributed to various organizations and/or gov't agencies...)

There is one pressurizer per reactor... (posted August 29, 2024):
https://acehoffman.blogspot.com/2024/08/there-is-one-pressurizer-per-reactor.html

A disgusting article about Diablo Canyon in the LA Times today (posted August 26, 2024):
https://acehoffman.blogspot.com/2024/08/a-disgusting-article-about-diablo.html

Be careful about comparing apples to oranges... (why we need to stop making more nuclear waste) (posted August 20, 2024):
https://acehoffman.blogspot.com/2024/08/be-careful-about-comparing-apples-to.html

Nuclear waste: The impossible problem to solve... (posted August 16, 2024):
https://acehoffman.blogspot.com/2024/08/nuclear-waste-impossible-problem-to.html

Hanford Tank degradation information is not easily accessible to the public (posted August 7, 2024):
https://acehoffman.blogspot.com/2024/08/hanford-tank-degradation-information-is.html

Millions of miles. Thousands of trips. And we're still making MORE nuclear waste? Are we crazy? (posted July 18, 2024):
https://acehoffman.blogspot.com/2024/07/millions-of-miles-thousands-of-trips.html

Three reviews of books about nuclear weapons and nuclear war (posted Jun 9, 2024):
https://acehoffman.blogspot.com/2024/06/three-reviews-of-books-about-nuclear.html

Ace Hoffman