Jump to navigation

Free Newsletter Modern Trader Follow

Main menu

  • Futures
    • Modern Trader Magazine
    • Commodities
    • Futures Mag Archives
    • ETFs
    • Financials
    • Forex
    • Managed Funds
    • Market Analysis
    • News
    • Options
    • Regulation
    • Technology
    • Trading Strategies
    • Education
    • Futures Op-Ed
  • Favorites
    • Alpha Pages Most Popular
    • Futures Magazine
    • Modern Trader Magazine
    • Most Popular
    • Slideshows & Lists
    • Special Topics
      • Alpha Hunters
      • Bad Boys
      • FINtech
      • High-Frequency Trading
      • Trader's Life
      • Trading Strategies
      • FUTURES MAG's 500th ISSUE
      • We asked traders
  • Traders
    • Market Data
    • Hot Charts
    • Interactive Charts
    • Trading Calendar
  • FINalternatives
  • Hard Assets
    • Home
    • Base Metals
    • Precious Metals
    • Rare Earth Metals
    • Commodities
    • Mining Investments
    • Slideshows
  • Modern Trader
    • Subscribe
    • Past Issues
  • All +
    • Follow Us +
      • FuturesMag
      • Newsletters
      • Facebook
      • Google+
      • Linkedin
      • Twitter
      • RSS Feeds
    • About Us +
      • About
      • Advertise
      • Contact
      • Contribute
      • Privacy Policy
  • !
Follow Futures          
       
more >>

We Asked Traders

We asked traders for their opinion on the launch of bitcoin futures

Sponsored Content

Trading

Equities.com launches unlimited trading via Tradier Brokerage, Transforming into a news & fintech portal

Featured Topics

more Commodities>>

Commodities

Energy demand steps back in play
Advertisement
more Volatility>>

Volatility

Volatility & opportunity in the energy sector
more Financials>>

Financials

Daily Price Action: E-mini S&P 500
more Options>>

Options

Trading Vertical Option Spreads

Advertisement

Nuclear industry withers in U.S. as wind pummels prices

By Julie Johnsson and Naureen S. Malik, Bloomberg

March 11, 2013 • Reprints

A glut of government-subsidized wind power may help accomplish a goal some environmentalists have sought for decades: kill off U.S. nuclear power plants while reducing reliance on electricity from burning coal.

That’s the assessment of executives and utility experts after the U.S. wind-energy industry went on a $25 billion growth binge in 2012, racing to qualify for a federal tax credit that was set to expire at year’s end.

The surge added a record 13,124 megawatts of wind turbines to the nation’s power grid, up 28% from 2011. The new wind farms increased financial pressure on traditional generators such as Dominion Resources Inc. and Exelon Corp. in their operating regions. That’s because wind energy undercut power prices already driven to 10-year-lows by an abundance of natural gas.

“Right now, natural gas and wind power are more economic than nuclear power in the Midwestern electricity market,” Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, a Chicago-based advocate of cleaner energy, said in a phone interview. “It’s a matter of economic competitiveness.”

Wind-generated electricity supplied about 3.4% of U.S. demand in 2012 and the share is projected to jump to 4.2% in 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The wind power boom has benefited consumers in regions where wind development is fastest, contributing to a 40% wholesale power-price plunge since 2008 in the Midwest, for example. Yet the surplus is creating havoc for nuclear power and coal generators that sell their output into short-term markets.

‘Perfect Storm’

The impact is greatest in the capacity-glutted Midwest. There, Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion is closing a money-losing reactor and selling coal plants, Exelon warns of shrinking nuclear margins and an Edison International merchant coal-plant unit has gone into bankruptcy.

“It’s a perfect storm,” said Charley Parnell, a Chicago- based spokesman for Edison’s Midwest Generation unit, in a phone interview. Pricing, already under pressure from cheap natural gas and the lingering effects of recession, now has a wind factor. “Wind absolutely plays a part in that,” he said, “especially in the off-peak hours.”

Atomic-power providers complain that the upheaval is an example of government subsidies distorting the market -- to the particular detriment of nuclear which provides 19% of the nation’s electricity, is clean and has proved safe despite perennial concern by activists that it poses a danger to public safety.

Page 1 of 3
>>next >

About the Author

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Related Articles
Energy demand steps back in play
Crude shoulder season blues
Crude corrects on production pop, but demand side is looming
Oil risk factors rise
Refiners work overtime as crude inventories drop
Previous
Dollar at almost highest against yen since 2009
Next
Oil falls a second day as China industrial output growth slows
Related Terms
Bloomberg 5254energy 3807commodities 3439Energies 2981natural gas 1979Congress 1894California 1387Texas 1372electricity 700Illinois 599Virginia 354Warren Buffett 297Iowa 249Google Inc. 173U.S. Energy Information Administration 170Oregon 163Coal 117renewable energy 102shale gas 100nuclear 49Clinton 42trade 33Southern California 27Wood Mackenzie Ltd. 16Exelon Corp. 16wind 8Dominion Resources Inc. 7cleaner energy 6Edison International 5electricity market 5American Wind Energy Association 4MidAmerican Energy Holdings 3Glenrock Associates LLC 2technology gains 2Bonneville Power Administration 2Paul Patterson 2Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator Inc. 1Green energy laws 1wind-energy industry 1wind-energy capacity 1clean-energy goals 1energy undercut power prices 1nuclear operator 1Wind-generated electricity 1Wholesale electricity 1Environmental Law and Policy Center 1Michael Blaha 1Joseph Dominguez 1Rob Gramlich 1Doug Johnson 1Christopher Crane 1Charley Parnell 1Howard Learner 1

Free Newsletter Modern Trader Follow

Main menu

  • Futures
    • Modern Trader Magazine
    • Commodities
    • Futures Mag Archives
    • ETFs
    • Financials
    • Forex
    • Managed Funds
    • Market Analysis
    • News
    • Options
    • Regulation
    • Technology
    • Trading Strategies
    • Education
    • Futures Op-Ed
  • Favorites
    • Alpha Pages Most Popular
    • Futures Magazine
    • Modern Trader Magazine
    • Most Popular
    • Slideshows & Lists
    • Special Topics
      • Alpha Hunters
      • Bad Boys
      • FINtech
      • High-Frequency Trading
      • Trader's Life
      • Trading Strategies
      • FUTURES MAG's 500th ISSUE
      • We asked traders
  • Traders
    • Market Data
    • Hot Charts
    • Interactive Charts
    • Trading Calendar
  • FINalternatives
  • Hard Assets
    • Home
    • Base Metals
    • Precious Metals
    • Rare Earth Metals
    • Commodities
    • Mining Investments
    • Slideshows
  • Modern Trader
    • Subscribe
    • Past Issues
  • All +
    • Follow Us +
      • FuturesMag
      • Newsletters
      • Facebook
      • Google+
      • Linkedin
      • Twitter
      • RSS Feeds
    • About Us +
      • About
      • Advertise
      • Contact
      • Contribute
      • Privacy Policy
  • !
images