Arkansas Electric Cooperative CEO warns renewable energy will also produce more rolling blackouts

Arkansas’ only nuclear power plant, Entergy Arkansas’ Nuclear One, is near Russellville on the banks of Lake Dardanelle.

 

The head of the Electric Cooperatives in Arkansas suggests it might be time to reconsider the movement to shut down coal-fired electric generating power plants.

Buddy Hasten, CEO of the cooperatives said if the nation moves to renewable energy as quick as the government wants, it might also result in more and more rolling blackouts, such as those seen in recent years in Texas.

He admits there will be more solar energy production in the near future in Arkansas but with it will come some dark moments, reported Arkansas Business.

“You’re going to see a lot more solar in places that haven’t had it” in the near future, Hasten said, noting that 60,000 megawatts of coal generation are set to retire nationwide in the next four years. That’s enough juice to power maybe 30 million typical homes. “Under the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law, a lot of that capacity will be replaced by renewable energy.”

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