By Ryan Randazzo | Arizona Republic
The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station 50 miles west of Phoenix is licensed to run into the 2040s, but officials there say they will need to get creative to keep it going that long, or beyond.
The nuclear plant has a problem that is unique to the Southwest: The growing amount of solar power on the regional power grid eventually will displace the nuclear plant’s power at certain times of the year.
In the summer, when people run lots of air conditioners, Palo Verde and other large plants meet the heavy electricity demand.
But on mild spring and fall days, there’s lots of power in the Southwest from solar power plants and solar panels on hundreds of thousands of rooftops from Texas to California, but little demand for electricity for air conditioning.
“Some days we still end up with more energy being produced because of Palo Verde and all that solar than what we can really use,” said Jack Cadogan, senior vice president of site operations at Palo Verde for Arizona Public Service Co.
