Illinois paid $694 million to keep nuclear plants open, showing why greening the grid is so hard – By Catherine Clifford (CNBC) / Nov 20 2021
- Illinois legislators agreed to spend up to $694 million over the next five years to keep a handful of nuclear power plants open.
- The operator of the plants, Exelon, said they were losing hundreds of millions of dollars and that nuclear can’t compete with cheap natural gas and subsidized wind and solar.
- Critics say that Exelon had the state over a barrel and that longer-term solutions are necessary to make clean energy cheaper and more accessible.
In September, Illinois lawmakers agreed to spend up to $694 million of energy ratepayers’ money over the next five years to keep several money-losing nuclear power plants open.
Nuclear energy produces no greenhouse gas emissions, meaning it can contribute to lowering carbon emissions. But today’s nuclear plants often can’t compete on price against cheaper existing sources of energy, particularly natural gas and government-subsidized renewables.
The negotiations in Illinois are a microcosm of a larger debate taking place across the country about the role existing nuclear power plants should play in the clean energy future.
For two of the nuclear plants at stake, the operator, Exelon, had already filed paperwork with federal regulators to shut them down for financial reasons. Lawmakers agreed to pay to keep the nuclear plants open so that Illinois could meet its clean energy goals, and Exelon agreed to keep two other marginal nuclear plants in the state open as well.
