America is watching the world’s movement to nuclear power generation

Now let's move on to affordable electricity generation. A popular misunderstanding is that intermittent solar and wind are "free", but increasing electricity costs are caused by at least three factors:

1. Two electricity generating systems need to be built. The fact is that because wind and solar are intermittent, two power generation systems need to be built. The renewable system that is powered by wind and solar energy and then a backup generation system powered by coal, gas, nuclear or other "Dispatchable" generation. The second generating system is necessary to provide uninterrupted generation when the sun sets and the wind doesn't blow.
2. The gas fuel for the gas turbine backup power is volatile and usually at a higher cost than coal or nuclear fuel.
3. Wind and solar farms require vast acreage away from populated areas; thus, transmission lines and substations must be constructed to connect the power generation from remotely located solar and wind farms. to bring that "free" electricity back to where people and businesses are located.

Of course, there are numerous and complicated reasons unique to each area. However, the pattern of results is clear. The more solar and wind is installed, the higher the cost of electricity. At this point in time the end results of other states and other countries cannot be ignored.

• Hawaii which prematurely shut down their 180 MW coal plant about five years ago has the highest electricity rates in all the U.S. Hawaii is an energy island and cannot backup the wind and solar that is installed with gas turbines or imported power from neighboring utilities. There are no gas lines in Hawaii so, the backup is Diesel fueled generation.
• Germany tried to transition to wind and solar and the high electric rates created de-industrialization because energy intensive industries could not compete in the world markets.
• Then there are numerous other U.S. states that have shut down their coal plants with a similar result as Germany and Hawaii. Extreme price escalation. These are simply facts from published electricity rates and state energy profiles of generation by fuel.

Then came politically driven energy laws that forced coal plants to shut down.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) owned a large portion of the well designed, well run, clean and affordable 1900 MW Intermountain Power Coal Plant in Delta Utah. The power from Delta, Utah flowed over special high voltage D.C. power lines very reliably for many years. The Intermountain Power Coal plant was shut down in 2025 and no longer operates on coal fuel. Almost a fifth of LADWP electricity was generated from coal fuel as recent as 2016. Now, zero generation is from coal fuel.

The escalating power costs are likely to force any electricity intensive industry to move toward continuous, uninterruptable, and emission free electricity. Thus, America is watching the world's movement to nuclear power generation.