USA, California:

California’s Great SONGS Debate: Gas-Fired Power vs. Green Alternatives (Greentech Media)

The decommissioned San Onofre Nuclear Generation
Station is not far from one of the largest geothermal
energy resources in the world around the Salton Sea.

Down in Southern California, a battle over the state’s energy future has just been set in motion. At issue is the loss of the 2,200-megawatt San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS) -- and the debate over how much green energy can be relied on to replace it.

On Tuesday, the California Public Utilities Commission issued a proposed decision (PDF) that would require Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric to each procure between 500 megawatts and 700 megawatts of new energy capacity by 2022 to make up for the generation lost with the 30-year-old nuclear plant’s closure last year.

Of that new capacity, at least 400 megawatts for SCE and at least 200 megawatts for SDG&E must come from “preferred resources.” Those are the energy efficiency, demand response, solar,wind, geothermal power and other renewable energy sources, and grid energy storage resources that must come before fossil-fuel-fired power -- namely, natural-gas-fired power plants -- under the state’s “loading order” regulations.

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