Emerging Energy Industry: Perks and Pitfalls

In an interview with Donell Banks, Project Startup Director at Southern Nuclear, he talks about the current state of the Energy Industry and elucidates on his concerns and outlook toward the ever evolving sphere of the same.

1. What are some of the major challenges and trends that have been impacting the Energy Industry lately?

The rate of economic recovery and energy demand following the pandemic has surpassed global recovery of energy supply. Coupled with Russia's invasion of the Ukraine and supply chain challenges, our overreliance on fossil fuels has been amplified. I believe this opens up opportunities for the US to fill the energy gap with a more rapid transition to an energy portfolio that favors clean energy sources, but it will be incumbent on our policy makers to stay the course for this transition and resist the draw of falling back to carbon sources.

2. What keeps you up at night when it comes to some of the major predicaments in the Energy Industry?

There is a lot of momentum in the US for transition to carbon-free energy sources, and more specifically renewable energy. This is exciting and a change for the better; however, I worry about the future of the nuclear industry in this country. In the last decade alone, 7 nuclear reactors have been shut down in the US. This accounts for roughly 13,000 MWe of generating capacity no longer available to supply the power grid. The transition to carbon-free energy is of critical importance to the environment and future of the US, but in order to ensure baseload stability, nuclear power must remain a strong constituent of the energy portfolio, along with renewable sources. I believe we must continue to advocate for maintaining our existing nuclear facilities and investing in new nuclear.

The technology packed into these cars is eye-opening and continues to advance every day

3. Can you tell us about the latest project that you have been working on and what are some of the technological and process elements that you leveraged to make the project successful?

I'm currently the Startup Director at Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, Units 3 & 4. These two units will be the first new build nuclear units to come online in the US in over 30 years. For any nuclear project to be successful, the ability to protect the health and safety of the public from an accident condition is priority one. These units are fully digital and utilize passive features to ensure the reactor can be safely shutdown and core maintained cool without reliance on AC power. In addition to the inherent safety of the plant design, although it may sound cliché, I attribute our success to the quality and resilience of the people that support this project. We have a culture of teamwork and continuous learning and demonstrate this through strong processes for applying operating experience, benchmarking, and incorporating lessons learned.

4. What are some of the technological trends which excite you for the future of the Energy Industry?

The movement toward electric vehicles is very exciting! In addition to the positive impact on the environment, more and more people are coming to understand the economic benefit of switching from filling up at gas stations to plugging in to charge. I have personally made the switch to electric and don't plan on going back to gas. The technology packed into these cars is eye-opening and continues to advance every day. It's up to those of us in the energy industry to ensure we maintain an adequate supply of green energy to keep up with the growing demand.