Washington, D.C., February 22, 2010 — Energy Secretary Steven Chu took some time February 22 to post about the future of the nuclear energy sector and the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program on the popular social networking site, Facebook.

“There has been a vigorous discussion here on Facebook since my last post about President Obama's announcement of a loan guarantee for what will become the first nuclear power plant to break ground in nearly three decades. I'd like to make a few points to continue the discussion,” Chu wrote.

“Some of you expressed a preference for solar and wind power over nuclear energy. I share your enthusiasm for these renewable sources of energy, and, because of the success of the Recovery Act, we are on pace to double our renewable energy capacity by 2012,” Chu wrote, in reference to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

To read about the Obama administration’s nuclear loan guarantees, click here

No one power generation technology holds the answer to America’s energy needs, he said, adding that wind and solar’s combined 3 percent contribution to the nation’s energy mix is dwarfed by nuclear energy’s 20 percent.

Energy demand will rise by a predicted 30 percent over the next 25 years under current energy policies, Chu said, citing statistics from his department’s Energy Information Administration.

“If we want to make a serious dent in carbon dioxide emissions ­— not to mention having cleaner air and cleaner water — then nuclear power has to be on the table,” he wrote.

Using today’s technology, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar will be unlikely to contribute as much energy to the country’s generation mix as nuclear power, Chu said.

“Without technological breakthroughs in efficient, large scale energy storage, it will be difficult to rely on intermittent renewables for much more than 20-30 percent of our electricity,” he said. “To overcome this problem, we are pursuing breakthrough approaches to grid-scale energy storage as well as stimulating the wide-spread adoption of known technologies such as pumped hydro energy storage. But nuclear power can provide large amounts of carbon-free power that is always available.”

Chu called the Obama administration’s focus on nuclear energy a part of a comprehensive solution that includes investments in energy efficiency, wind, solar, geothermal, carbon capture, energy storage, electric vehicles, and more.