Arizona’s energy landscape may be changing.
Three of the state’s largest utilities; Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project, and Tucson Electric Power are exploring a joint venture to bring a Generation III+ Small Modular Nuclear Reactor to Arizona. The plan is to take advantage of a $900 million grant from the Department of Energy.
Arizona is one of 14 states that generated over 100 million megawatt hours of electricity last year. According to data from the US Energy Information Administration, nuclear power was 28% of the energy produced. Nuclear energy is much more common on the east side of the country. While the state was thirteenth overall in nuclear energy production, it ranked first among states west of the Mississippi.
Nuclear power has been a constant source of energy in Arizona, but its share of the overall total is on the decline. As Arizona’s power needs grew the state began utilizing natural gas plants in the mid-nineties. During that time nuclear power fell from a peak of 40% in 1995 to 28% where it is today.
Coal, once the dominant energy source has fallen to under 10%. A little under half of all energy produced is natural gas and renewable sources make up 8%.
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While Arizona only has one nuclear facility it is the largest in the United States. Palo Verde, just outside the Valley of the Sun generates almost 4,000 megawatt hours per day. Enough to power 630,000 homes.
The proposed plant would be much smaller. Capable of producing 300 megawatt hours or less daily. At full capacity, an estimated 50,000 additional homes would be getting their energy from nuclear power.
APS says the proposed plant would not be online until the 2040s. Even without it, Arizona stands today as a net energy exporter. Last year about 25 million more megawatt hours were generated than needed domestically. Much of that surplus goes to California, one of the country’s largest net importers of electricity.
Two major Southern California utilities do have a stake in Palo Verde. Even though it is in the Valley of the Sun, it provides about a third of California’s nuclear energy.
