Crystal River Nuclear Plant's Planned Reopening Raises Cost Questions

MANATEE COUNTY -- It appeared Progress Energy’s Crystal River nuclear power plant was destined to close. Now they have announced the plant will reopen, targeting a 2014 date. The Gainesville Sun reports the price-tag is estimated to be as much as $1.3 billion, on top of the $214 million in repairs – and $375 million spent on replacement power since 2009, when PE shut down the reactor.

The shutdown was to replace aging steam generators, but PE also discovered cracks in the containment dome. They repaired them only to discover – more cracks. It would seem prudent to consider this: Just $1 billion dollars of that money could equip a couple hundred thousand homes, in this sunshine state, with rooftop solar panels and the reversible meters needed to sell power back to the electric companies, onto its existing grid (no storage needed).

Doing so could generate much of the 800 megawatts the nuclear plant was designed to produce. This would also create tens of thousands of sustainable jobs for this job-depressed state. The Guardian recently reported the view of the Committee on Climate Change (an independent entity created to advise the U.K. government) that, "solar remained too expensive.“ However, Ben Warren, the lead author of a newly published report from the Ernst & Young's energy and environmental infrastructure advisory unit, countered that the CCC'S view failed to consider the wider economic benefits of solar.

"Being a laggard has never been very successful in terms of capturing the greater share of the value added for the economy,“ Warren points out. ”If you create a sustainable market, you will achieve cost savings and drive economic benefits in terms of tax income and job creation.“

The Ernst and Young report references the one-time cost of installing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels has dropped considerably. And in just two years, it's expected to be half the price it was just two years ago. Bloomberg's Solar Value Chain Index shows the spot price of solar grade silicon fell by 28 percent month on month, while multi-crystalline silicon wafers dropped by 23 percent in June and the silicon cell price was down 15 percent in the same period. The study predicts that by 2013 setup cost will be at $1 a watt. This all translates to "Solar" being competitive with "Grid" power.
 
Ernst & Young conducted this study for the Solar Trade Association (STA). What was unexpected was a possible shakeup in subsidies for large solar projects, being diverted to programs that make household "roof top" projects even more practical and affordable. Now Big-Biz fears that subsidies might be redirected to homeowners instead of their companies. Households that produce more power than they are using will reverse the meter, selling it back to the same company that supplied the power needed over what a household is able to produce.

The collective power gained through this process would simply out pace any increase in demand, but it wouldn't put as much money into the hands of energy industry executives and shareholders. Faced with energy and environmental challenges that aren't going to go away on their own, Floridians need to consider the cost, both financial and otherwise, of continuing to subsidize already extremely profitable industries at their own expense.