Why is SCE&G building a nuclear plant instead of using some newer, renewable technology?
A. Renewable technologies such as wind and solar energy continue to improve. However, they still cannot provide the large-scale, around-the-clock generation required to meet South Carolina’s energy needs. Sunlight is not available all the time. Wind is variable and unpredictable. To produce as much electricity as Summer Station, a solar-powered plant would require panels covering an area the size of Columbia, S.C. Equivalent wind generation would require hundreds of turbines stretching across the entire South Carolina coast, the only place in our state where there’s enough wind to power them. By comparison, V.C. Summer takes up only a few square miles.
