On a cold rainy morning waiting for the 49er game to come
on, I want to summarize some of the energy issues that I am following. Without getting into the politics of climate
change, fossil fuel development, degradation of our air, water, and land via
massive environmental deregulation, I still track the ongoing lies and
misconceptions about nuclear power and renewables. All of that is incredibly
connected.
The nuclear industry continues to push for billions of
dollars in subsidies and the folly pursuit of solving the radioactive waste
problems. The Vogle reactors in Georgia
continue to drain consumer and taxpayer coffers in an attempt to put those
reactors on line. Not going to happen!
(1) The two abandoned plants in South
Carolina continue to suck money, even though they definitely will never operate.
(2) The promise of small modular
reactors is really no solution, and their proponents are having a hard time
finding private investment. Even Bill
Gates is backing off his nuclear goals.
The dreams of thorium and fusion continue to fade, although their
proponents continue to demand research money with false promises.
Even without all these construction stumbling blocks, the
real cost of nuclear power is beginning to be understood with the hugely
expensive and difficult processes of decommissioning Diablo Canyon, San Onofre,
Vermont Yankee, Indian Point, Three Mile Island…the list goes on. What to do with the wastes…the high level
spent fuel which has no solution, and now of new concern, the tremendous volumes
of low-level wastes which will be transported all over the country. Good for business for a few private companies
like Holtec. The high-level stuff is
stymied by the billions of dollars spent trying to get a handle on the military
wastes at Hanford, South Carolina, and a host of other sites in the US. The much-touted vitrification plant at
Hanford is 14 years behind schedule, about 2/3 complete, and gone from
$2billion to estimated $25billion…and a lot of concern over it will even work!
(3)
The fossil fuels are also being hammered by economics and
the potential of renewables. Oil is
being threatened by electric vehicles, and coal is on the verge of collapse
because of not only direct economic uncompetitiveness, but it’s huge CO2
footprint. The closure of the Navajo
Generating station in Arizona is portrayed by the media as a disaster in terms
of job loss. It sits in the middle of a
hot, sunny desert. It has the infrastructure
to generate steam with new solar heat technologies, and a huge amount of land
to employ workers installing and developing solar technologies. China recently announced that they are investing
$1billion in building a new PV manufacturing plant, which will manufacture
15,000MW of solar capacity PER YEAR!!! The
Navajo tribe should invest in manufacturing as well as applications. Jobs! $$$s! The future!!!
I am still an optimist in these dire times. The goal for those that care should be
awareness and education as to what is happening, and more important to the
positive solutions of what can be. The
economic value of renewables development is generating some economic push
Goldman Sachs is investing $750billion in renewables, not because they want to
do their good deed in fighting climate change, but because there is MONEY to be
made in this inevitable transition. (4) The huge push now is in electricity storage. Batteries are still in the forefront,
although hydrogen is becoming more and more attractive because of its
potentially low cost when all factors are put into play. (5) More on this later!!
So, in spite of the reduction of that damn solar tax credit
from 30% to $26%, the economics of solar, as well as wind, are leading the path
into the future. Now, if we can just get
the old school big money powers out of the way…or better still, have them
understand that they, too, can make money on the new energy technologies the world
needs. It just means investing in the
future, as opposed to short term huge profits.
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