Nuclear energy may be an option for the world, given the chaos associated with "green transition".
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- Energy crisis 2021: Since September 2021, the world was dealing with a power and energy crisis. While the factors that caused this emergency are complex and differ somewhat from country to country, the demand now is to reduce dependence on fossil fuels — coal, petrol, natural gas — further and increase production of renewable energy — mainly solar and wind. There are serious questions to be asked here.
- Renewables and storage: Solar and wind energy are, by definition, intermittent and unstable. If the sun does not shine or the wind does not blow, one cannot produce enough power. Even in the very best conditions, solar and wind farms do not generate power round the clock, and require fossil-fuel back-up. This will not change till very-large-scale cost-effective technology to store the power produced, comes into existence.
- British dreams: Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a wind energy enthusiast, says he wants the UK to become the “Saudi Arabia of wind power" with wind farms generating enough electricity to meet the needs of every UK home by 2030. Today, 24% of Britain’s power comes from wind, but an unexpected “windless summer" 2021 led to the UK power crisis.
- Other countries: Among EU nations, Germany has been the most aggressive in pursuing a renewable energy future. Under its "Energiewende" (energy transition) plan, begun in 2010, it has been shutting down its coal-fired and nuclear power stations.
- Today, 30% of its power comes from wind and sunlight. But last month, faced with a coal and natural gas crunch, it woke up to the reality that after investing half a trillion dollars on the plan, it does not have the capacity to bottle up enough weather-dependent clean power to hold out even for a few fossil-fuel-free hours.
- Germany’s household-sector electricity price is the highest in the EU: $0.37 per kilowatt-hour (KwH). In France, it’s $0.19. In 2019, Germany emitted 350 grams of carbon dioxide for every KwH generated. France emitted 56 grams, six times less.
- French rock: Power in France is much cheaper and cleaner. In 2020, nuclear power made up 78% of the energy France generated, and renewables 19%. Fossil fuels accounted for only 3%. But nuclear power brings images of mushroom clouds over Hiroshima to mind. Nuclear power may be the cheapest, greenest and safest source of energy currently known to man.
- France and other countries like Sweden and Bulgaria, which have a high nuclear component in their power generation, prove the cheap part.
- Nuclear power is zero-emission. It has no greenhouse gases or air pollutants. A typical 1,000-megawatt wind farm requires 360 times more land than a similar-capacity nuclear facility, and solar plants 75 times more. Apart from the ecological damage that wind and solar projects can cause to the relatively pristine areas where they are set up, it is conservatively estimated that 500,000 birds are being killed every year by collision with wind turbines in the US.
- Radiation exposure is a known risk that can be managed, and reliable and safe ways to dispose of nuclear waste is being done. All the waste produced by the US nuclear industry over 60 years can theoretically fit into a seven-metre-high stack of containers on a soccer field. And it would be even less if the US recycled the waste to produce more power, as France does. Coal plants spew out that volume of waste every hour.
- A different track: California has been shutting down nuclear plants and aims to be nuclear-free by 2025. One of the consequences has been rising emissions due to more dependence on natural gas. While the price of electricity has stayed flat for the rest of the US over the last 10 years, in California it has risen more than 60%. This is a clean energy trap!
- Indo-US nuclear deal: The boldest decision that Dr Manmohan Singh took in his 10 years as prime minister was to sign the Indo-US nuclear deal. Not much happened since then, with only 3% of the power in India going nuclear. The government announced in 2021 that India would triple its nuclear power capacity in the next 10 years. India imports much of the uranium it uses, which is both expensive and geopolitically tricky. But it has immense reserves of thorium. It can invest ambitiously in projects that convert thorium to fissile uranium and produce power.
- EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the narrative around nuclear power, and why nations are generally not too enthusiastic about it. (2) Why is green transition not going to be a smooth exercise for the world? Explain.
#greentransition #renewableenergy #nuclearenergy
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