The good the bad and the ugly
Update on renewable, fossil and nuclear energy/electricity generation
The following article has been written using the most up to date credible information and the relevant bibliography with hyperlinks can be found at the end.
The good News
In 2012 Renewable in Germany generated net 25.8% of Germany’s electricity, that’s the equivalent of 37% of Britain electricity needs. On sunny days photovoltaic solar alone produces some 40% of Germany’s electricity using pv systems which have an efficiency of between 12-15%. Consider the power increase if all existing systems would be upgraded to commercially available 20% or in a few years to 40% efficient pv. Only this September scientists at the Fraunhofer institute announced that a solar cell with an efficiency of 44.7% was produced and something like this to be on the market by 2020.
Energy provision from Renewable sources has grown in the last 10 years at a tremendous speed and between 2002 and 2012 enough capacity was installed in Germany to increase the electricity supply by over 92 Terawatt hours to 136TWh. Better still, if the overall energy production is included, renewables produced some 314TWh in 2012, almost a 200TWh increase since 2002 saving enormous amounts of CO2. This is an outstanding achievement because all infrastructures from roads to electric grid connection had to be built from scratch. Demonstrating clearly that the energy storage issue is artificially inflated and what's needed is an electric grid which can distribute the power quickly.
Putting this in perspective all 16 nuclear reactors in Britain produced in 2012 some 64TWh, the all historic height was 90TWh receiving vast amount of subsidies, still do and leaving us with catalogue of problems.
Germany which was very much pro nuclear and hostile towards renewables managed to build 36 reactors over 30 years generating at its peak some 170TWh, still below what renewables achieved in a third of this time.
France the dream land of most nuclear fans built since 1959 some 70 reactors and the 58 operational ones produced net 405Twh in 2012 of electricity/energy. Even if we generous and divide that amount of electricity by only three decades renewables outperform nuclear power in terms of energy generation.
In the nineteen eighties at the height of the hostility against renewables in Germany an enormous wind turbine was build, key people at the time stated that the sole purpose of GROWIAN was to demonstrate that renewables cannot produce any meaningful energy, are uneconomical and that Germany had to invest into nukes, and so it did. Even today there are many using the same principle and examples can be found everywhere. Councils putting very expensive marine pv solar&wind combination between shady trees is one of them.
Against all the odds the Green party, together with the Social democrats took office between 1998 and 2005 and things changed quickly. The greens negotiated an orderly shutdown of all nukes whilst at the same time providing a framework to encourage energy generation with renewables. When the Conservatives took office the nukes lifeline got extended again and after Fukushima reversed back to the green shutdown policy, but now costing Germany dearly in fines as it broke the contracts signed by the conservatives when these took office.
In 2012 renewables provided in Germany some 350k decent jobs in engineering, manufacturing, installation, maintenance and so on. In 1998 renewables in Germany provided only 5% of electricity. Since Germany has invested heavily into renewables and the economy, public finances, unemployment and the standard of living are no worse than that of Britain or France. Japan had before Fukushima over 50 nukes on the grid and has been for the last 20-25 odd years in an economic slump. Japan has also one of the highest debt ratio of developing countries in 2011 nearly 3 times that of Britain, France or Germany.
Renewables offers what nukes can’t, power to the people and true democracy, because responsibility and income can be spread between many with only little risks for humanity now and in the future, something which cannot be said about nuclear power.
For all these reasons it is not surprising that in the recent election neither the conservatives nor any other established parties wanted to reverse the commitment to renewables and the quote below sums it up nicely.
World Finance Magazine July/August issue 2013 pp. 158/9 …‘In January we offered possibly one of the lowest tariff for pv energy recorded in the world at a cost of 12cents per KWh. To offer a basis for comparison: to deliver this quality of electricity at this price using oil as a fuel, one would need to provide 3400 barrels of oil every day for the next 25 years at a price of $40 per barrel; an unimaginable subsidy when compared to the marked oil price of $90 to $110 per barrel…..…
The bad News
Germany is producing some 50% of its electricity with fossil fuel worse, most of it is coal (also radioactive) with some of these power station being the dirtiest in Europe. That’s as bad as it gets in particular as it is totally avoidable. While Germany has some of the very dirtiest, Germany has also some of the cleanest, most efficient coal powered plants in the world.
The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is a huge long term problem that needs long term global solutions. Even if we find now a magical device producing energy without generating any CO2 and worse problems or stop all human activity we still all have to deal with the consequences such as changing weather patterns and everything which comes with it, inconveniencing some of us and causing devastation for many. Call a worldwide competition to find a solution dealing with our surplus of CO2 and we will get somewhere. Perhaps trees will do the trick, a bit less deforestation? In the meantime we have to use energy more wisely, prepare better and help those worse affected.
Some of the renewable energy sources used in Germany use wood from sustainable forests in Canada which has to be shipped for thousands of miles, this still better than shipping oil or other fossil fuels around the globe with all the consequences we know so well.
Wind turbines are not more ugly or dangerous than train lines, motorways, airports, Pylons or power stations all of them impact visually and kill, not only wild live.
Unfortunately resentment against renewables is stirred on many different levels. People using renewable are made responsible for the fuel price increase, fuel poverty and so on and so on. When the British banking system was close to collapsing the government stepped in guaranteeing hundreds of billions, losing some £66 Billion, when the car industry suffered incentives were handed out towards a new car. How much did the government subsidise the coal mining, the shipbuilding, agriculture, fishery, the nuclear industry and importantly still does! Currently billions of pound sterling is spend per year dealing with the coal and nuclear heritage and unfortunately it looks like more billions will be spend by generations to come.
Poor short sighted energy policy creates fuel and general poverty not renewables.
The ugly news
Well, for a start none of the good news ever makes it into the headlines instead only the bad news. There is no balanced reporting, journalist or other personalities opinions are quoted and often these opinions are based on out of date info. Worse, opposition gets spied upon not only by undercover police and government agencies but by cooperation’s; activists who walk the walk get intimidated and criminalised.
The Deepwater Horizont’ accident in 2010 off the coast of America is costing BP some Billions of pound sterling which so far the company is paying for but the costs of the Fukushima disaster will be carried by the whole Japanese population for generations to come.
The operator of the nuclear plant (also in Britain) has only to pay the first millions not billions in case of an accident. Whenever we had nuclear accidents we get the explanations, justifications afterwards, Chernobyl happened because it was in Russia, Fukushima happened because…. What happened in Japan demonstrated how merciless nature can be but whereas most of the affected population were able to go back to rebuild the people of Fukushima can’t and no insurance or company is paying for this in any proportional way. The last Tsunami in Europe happened in the 17th Century wiping out Lisbon killing thousands of people, reaching the coast of England as a 2m wave. Who is saying that something like this can’t happen again? What about terrorism or again a series of very unfortunate events, no one person or company or nation will be able to live up to its responsibilities.
Even if we leave accidents out of the equation what do we do with all the waste? It was irresponsible to build the first nuclear power plants without knowing what to do with the waste. Committing to any more nuclear power while all we done so far is sinking the radioactive waste into the sea and storing it very improvised is beyond irresponsible. We are not only talking about spent fuel which can be reused (current rate in France 17%) but about pumps, pipes; water etc. not at last the reactor itself all totally deadly radioactive for thousands of years.
How much money has been spend over many generations in so many different countries to make the dream work, having endless amount of energy with no risks.. Why imitate the sun when you have one? The sun is radiating more energy onto earth than humanity will ever be able to consume, surely we could if we were all wasteful enough. This is also true for nuclear, even if we plaster the whole world with them if we are all as wasteful as some of us today we will not have enough energy for all.
My main concern is that Politian who make decisions on our behalf don’t even know half the facts and have been fed glossy brochures full of science mixed with wishful thinking. That’s why I promote this petition as I believe only an enquiry will deliver the facts needed to make future proof decision.
Conclusion:
Saying no to nuclear power is neither an emotional nor an ideological response but evidence based please look at the facts.
Going for renewables reduced CO2, betters the trade balance, increases competitiveness and creates a balanced, diverse economy with decent jobs for many.
Above all energy saving combined with sensible research and the responsible use of all available resources is the key for a brighter future.
Sources consulted:
‘International Atomic Energy Agency-Power Reactor Information System’
‘Nuclear Energy Statistics’, September 2013’ House of Commons Library
‘Public Accounts Committee - Twenty-Fourth Report Nuclear Decommissioning Authority: Managing risk at Sellafield’
‘Recent facts about photovoltaic in Germany, September 2013’,
‘The World Nuclear Status Report 2013’,
‘Zeitreihen zur Entwicklung der erneuerbaren Energien in Deutschland, February 2013’ http://www.erneuerbare-energien.de/fileadmin/Daten_EE/Bilder_Startseite/Bilder_Datenservice/PDFs__XLS/ee-energiedaten_ohne_formeln_2012.pdf
The World Bank
The Guardian
Evening Standard
