GOP Lawmaker Asks Energy Secretary Chris Wright About Using Solar Power To Meet Energy Demands

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At a House Energy Committee hearing last week, Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CP) questioned Sec. Chris Wright about solar power.

Transcript

00:00I recognize the gentleman from Colorado's eighth district for five minutes for questions.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman, ranking member, and of course, thank you, Secretary Wright.

00:08So good to see a fellow Coloradan here, not the least of which being I'm going to try to

00:13squeeze in four questions so I don't have to lay out for you the situation in Colorado.

00:18So straight to the first question. We know that in the part of the state that I represent,

00:24we've got a lot of oil and gas workers drilling. Can you talk about how the department,

00:28your department, can work with that existing workforce to increase projects that are

00:35happening around geothermal and that baseload generation from geothermal power?

00:40Yes, and great to see you, Congressman Evans. I appreciate your service.

00:46The next generation geothermal that's coming along right now, we used to call it hot, dry rock.

00:52Now they call it enhanced geothermal systems. It uses oil and gas technology, uses shale

00:58well technology to drill into dry rocks that don't have any hydrocarbons in them, but are just hot,

01:05and inject one, you know, drill and frack wells, inject water into it, flow it through the rock,

01:11and produce them out of other wells. So it's very much the same kind of training and work face as

01:16people working in oil and gas in Colorado. In fact, the same companies are not only could,

01:21but they're interested in developing that next generation geothermal resources. Colorado has

01:28these resources in place. There's a 400 megawatt project under development in neighboring Utah,

01:34but can that also happen in Colorado? Absolutely. And if that activity starts to go, is there a

01:41workforce that's excited and willing to go into that? Absolutely. Will a number of those come from

01:46the oil and gas industry? I'm sure they will. Great, great to hear that. Next question. You know,

01:52unfortunately, we know that there's an epidemic of premature retiring baseload generating stations.

01:58Colorado alone accounts for 10 percent of the baseload power in the nation that's forecast to come

02:03offline this year. And so while we know we need to reverse that trend, we also know that there are

02:08certain bottlenecks and regulatory barriers to being able to get the dispatchable baseload power that we

02:14need. So for the present moment, can you speak to the importance of variable power, wind and solar

02:20coupled with battery to meet the energy demands of the present moment? Yeah. So look, solar has made

02:27tremendous technical progress, you know, in the last 10 years, and I think continues to do it.

02:33So if, for example, if you're an island energy grid and you're getting your power from diesel and you

02:39could supplement that with solar, you can burn less diesel, you can drive down your electricity costs

02:43in domestic United States where we can pull from all different energy sources. Solar has applications

02:52in some areas and below a certain penetration level. But until you can get multiple days of energy

02:59stored, it's going to be a supplemental energy source. But in summertime where peak demand is near

03:07the end of the day, if you have solar panels there and you have a few hours of battery storage,

03:12you can move that late afternoon electricity into the peak demand time before people go to bed.

03:19So it can play a role. And without subsidies, you'll get wiser decisions about where does it make sense

03:26and where does it not make sense. So nothing in what I've said to get rid of these subsidies says

03:31get rid of the technology. Solar is going to be around. It's going to be around for the long run.

03:35I think it continues to grow. But even in an optimistic scenario, it doesn't likely ever get

03:42to 10 percent of global energy, not just electricity, just one slice of energy. But I think solar has a

03:49future and any technology with a future can survive and should survive without subsidies. You know, 25 years

03:55maybe is enough. Thank you. And then let's see, we got a minute and four seconds left. So the United

04:01States hasn't tested a new reactor design in close to 50 years, nuclear reactor design. President Trump

04:07recently expressed desire to see a test by July 4th, 2026. What can Congress do to provide you and the

04:14department with the resources need to expedite the testing of a reactor for commercial use by 2026?

04:21Yes. So our goal there is at the Idaho National Laboratory, which is our sort of commercial

04:27nuclear lab in Idaho. They've got a lot of land there and a tremendous amount of just fantastic

04:32scientists. So and there are commercial businesses that have new reactor designs coming up. We want to

04:37get them into our test containment vessel and run them. So I think what building nuclear is as more of

04:45a bipartisan issue in this Congress has been helpful. Look to really unleash nuclear

04:51going forward. The NRC has got to become more efficient and more sensible in regulations.

04:56We've got to get if you approved your reactor design and it's a small modular reactor, you're going to

05:01build the same reactor. You can't have to start from new every time. You just got to evaluate the new

05:06site location. So common sense permitting reform at NRC is helpful. And that's certainly under the

05:14jurisdiction of this Congress. But we're working at the administration level as well. I've got some

05:18optimism there, representative evidence. But yes, it's going to take us all working together.

05:23And the gentleman's time has expired and yields.

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