Can Wind Energy Serve As Baseload Power? The First Circuit Agrees With The NRC That, For Now, The Answer Is "Not Yet."

In an interesting decision issued last Friday, the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Beyond Nuclear v. NextEra Energy Seabrook, affirmed the decision by the NRC rejecting a challenge to Seabrook's relicensing posed by a coalition of environmental groups.  The decision seems clearly correct, but raises an important policy issue that is likely to recur as renewable energy technologies advance, so seemed worth mention.

The issue in the case was that the environmental groups, known collectively as "Beyond Nuclear," contended that the relicensing proceeding should include wind as a "reasonable alternative."  The NRC rejected BN's contention on the ground that, because Seabrook provides baseload power, any alternative must also do so.  The NRC further concluded the intermittent nature of wind power means that it cannot be considered baseload without effective energy storage mechanisms, and that storage technology is "not sufficient demonstrated at this time."