Early last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a waiver that allows the beginning of the process to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center. The 600-MW nuclear reactor, located just northwest of Cedar Rapids, IA, has not generated electricity since the plant shuttered in August 2020. Duane Arnold is the only nuclear plant to have ever run in Iowa. The plant connected to the power grid in February 1975. Between then, and its closure in August 2020, the plant generated more than 174 million MWh – that is 2.5X the annual output of every electricity producing plant in Iowa. The shuttered plant is owned by NextEra Energy, Inc. (70%), Central Iowa Power Cooperative (20%), and Corn Belt Power Cooperative (10%). As recently as 2019, the plant was generating about 10% of Iowa’s total electricity production. The average capacity factor that year was over 99%. The waiver allows the plant’s operator and majority owner, NextEra Energy to reclaim interconnection rights that were previously granted a utility-scale solar project on the plant site.
The Duane Arnold Energy Center represents the third retired nuclear power plant to recently announce plans to restart in the United States. The other two are Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan. If all goes to plan, Duane Arnold will be operating by the end of 2029. Anticipating unprecedented growth in electricity demand, driven most by AI technology and data center development, companies are looking for high volume clean energy resources. Powering good!
FERC Order Granting Waiver Request re NextEra Energy Duane Arnold, LLC: https://lnkd.in/dzNtD9w3
Charts: Hitachi Energy Velocity Suite – Image: Duane Arnold nuclear facility, courtesy of NextEra Energy