THE NUCLEAR POWER HOAX

 NUCLEAR POWER IS DEAD, BUT THE HOAX CONTINUES

 An article https://thebulletin.org/2021/08/us-attorney-details-illegal-acts-at-construction-projects-sealing-the-fate-of-the-nuclear-renaissance/ from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists cements what I have been saying for the past 15 years and more: nuclear power is not cheap, clean, safe, and even necessary, and is morally corrupt.  The huge nuclear industry is guilty of the same tactics as the fossil fuel industries (they are in essence the same) in spending hundreds of millions of dollars promoting misinformation and lies, and suppressing the real information we know about the human health, environmental, and economic dangers we’ve seen in the deployment of nuclear power over the years.  The primary reason is the same: there has always been, and still is huge amounts of money to be made, legally and illegally, from taxpayers and ratepayers. 

 The so-called “renaissance” proposed in 2006, hoped to build 38, then 8, and finally 2 major necessary nuclear power projects.  These were supposed new and better designs and would correct past mistakes in the construction and operation of the 105 reactors built in the US between 1960 and 1988.  With Federal loan guarantees of $12+billion, what could go wrong?  As the article details, and I have updated periodically, the South Carolina project was canceled half-way through its construction, years behind schedule, and having wasted $9+billion of ratepayer and taxpayer monies.  The Vogle project in Georgia is experiencing very similar issues, now 90% completed, but years behind schedule for its startup, and a cost exploding from $6 billion to $30+/-??  And then the big question for it is will it actually work! How much will the electricity it ever produces cost its customers, while the utilities reap their guaranteed profits?

 Similar problems face the nuclear giant Electricity de France, with their “new and better” EPR reactor design.  Their “nuclear renaissance” began with construction in Flamanville, France, and Olkiluoto, Finland, both now years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.  The first EPR reactor recently completed in China experienced a major fuel problem, and was shut down after only a few months of operation.  The UK is still supposedly in line to build several of these reactors.  So, it seems, the era of big centralized nuclear power plants is over, and the industry will focus on the money to be made in the decommissioning of the old reactors as they retire.  PG&E just raised rates again to cover the new $3.9billion decommissioning cost estimate supposedly to begin in 2025 and take a bit of time to complete.  Illinois has granted $700million in federal money to keep the two Excelon plants running for a few more years before they will be retired. 

 You would think this would be enough, but the nuclear industry continues the hoax…claiming that we need carbon-free nuclear generation to save the planet from climate change.  This is very far from the truth.  Although the actual steam production of electricity from a nuclear fission reactor does not emit CO2, the entire nuclear fuel infrastructure (mining, processing, enrichment, fuel fabrication, a lot of operation and maintenance, construction of all the facilities, and equally important, the management of nuclear wastes) has an enormous carbon footprint.  The other hoax is that the “new” generation of reactors such as the Small Modular Reactor, and the advanced molten salt reactors, etc., are for now only on paper.  It will take years, and of course taxpayer money to develop and commercialize, and there is no guarantee that they will work, or be cheaper, or safer, or even necessary.  The same hype exists for Fusion, which at best is many years away from any kind of commercialization.  And again, I stress, in all the glitz and hoopla, there is no mention of what to in reality do with all the nuclear wastes that are generated. 

 In these troubled times, we are beginning to see the reality of climate change, and beginning to assess the damage laid upon us citizens by a very few wealthy and powerful industrialists preying on our fears and ignorance.  With the increasing cost-competiveness of local decentralized renewables, energy storage, efficiency, and microgrids, the biggest issues now are dealing with  the huge aging national grid, which is becoming more expensive to maintain, and more vulnerable in today’s climate.

 Let the sun shine, the winds blow, and the tides sway back and forth!

 https://www.thelocal.fr/20170209/flamanville-frances-own-nuclear-nightmare/

 https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/olkiluoto_3_reactor_delayed_yet_again_now_12_years_behind_schedule/11128489

 https://www.newsweek.com/china-taishan-nuclear-plant-shuts-down-damaged-fuel-rods-1614636

 https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-08-23/nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-may-be-cause-for-climate-optimism?mkt_tok=ODUwLVRBQS01MTEAAAF_FyUzfTLg6I9yxBBt47hVevJmDCXq7YOhqUQb0B4NegCNF9ExwCKGF3RQqAi5Egbi_VbeqZlmKFpZ2i8TxjvkbRtRy2suJhUJmNJdoUbtz8fC

SUMMER OF DISCONTENT

Smoke, smoke, smoke…just one of the “inconveniences” today as a result of our changing climate.  The weather repercussions coupled with the IPCC’s latest update have at least thrown the gauntlet once again into the global arena.  It proclaims that the prophecies made back in its original report in1990 are coming to pass, and newer research and analysis is predicting an even grimmer scenario for the global ecosystem.  Read into it what you want, but as said before, as fossil CO2 is increasingly put into our atmosphere, the earth’s dynamic systems are changing faster and with more extremes.  Regardless of what we do RIGHT NOW, changes we see today will only escalate until the “lag” of decreasing CO2 in the atmosphere slowly catches up.  It’s taken let’s say the last 50 years to get to this point…it will take many years to make any kind of a backward transition.  Regardless of what WE, as nations or global society eventually do, we all will have to adapt to living with smoke, fires, drought, sea-level rise, water availability, changing food production and famine, increase migration problems, loss of “nature,” and the countless problems that have been, and continue to be identified by the various scientific disciplines.  It is not a hoax by scientists, but an unimaginable hoax over the years by the greed of the fossil fuel cartel.  Enough said for now!!!!!!!

 As carbon-free renewable energy continues to make its way to the front of the line, the old hard school fossil and nuclear industries continue to do whatever they can to stay in power.  CO2 capture from burning oil, gas, and even coal is sucking up dollars and scientific progress, with the promise that this will solve everything.  It’s the proverbial bailing out the sinking Titanic with a teacup.  The nuclear push with “new” unproven small reactors is again a pipedream on paper and will take many years and many dollars to be verified and make an impact.  And then again, there’s the issue of nuclear waste!  We will need all and everything we can do to change the world into a sustainable society.  The best hope lies in the various renewable technologies of solar, wind, oceans, water, and more.  One important key to their worldwide diversity implementation lies in the use of HYDROGEN as a storage medium.  Produced from the splitting of the water molecule H2O, the hydrogen gas can be re-oxidized to create electricity in a fuel cell, or even burned to release heat, although this also creates NOx and other air pollutants. 

 Everybody wants to get into the hydrogen game.  The fossil industry wants to create it by steam-reforming natural gas. (Red Hydrogen…not good) The nuclear industry wants to use nuclear electricity to split water. (Blue Hydrogen…not CO2 neutral) The future demands that we use non-CO2 resources, such as wind and solar, to produce Green Hydrogen! 

 A lot of players are looking at how hydrogen will be used.  The biggest attention is paid by the transportation sector since it is the largest energy user.  We will see hydrogen being used in various sectors such as railroads, shipping, trucking, inhouse and local vehicles, and even some aircraft; but I do not foresee a big shift to private cars.  The requirements for the infrastructure transition…production, delivery, storage, fueling stations, etc. are enormous and expensive; and are not really necessary.  Electricity is easier and safer to move than hydrogen gas, and most of its infrastructure is already in place.  Batteries will probably continue to dominate, with new, cheaper, more environmentally friendly technologies being developed every day.

 As I’ve said before, the major role of hydrogen will be to store renewably produced electricity.  Split water into H2, and then recombine it O2 to release the energy, producing a waste product of water!  On-site electrolyzers produce the gas, and onsite fuel cells convert the H2 back into electricity when needed.  This can be done in a large-scale solar or wind facility, all the way down to the small microgrids being implemented today. As with any emerging technology, there are research and development requirements that demand economic, political, and social will.  New electrolyzing technology has evolved beyond the high school chemistry lab, with a new focus on desalinization, wastewater cleanup, and freshwater management.  Many companies are already at the forefront of fuel cell technology.  Several companies and countries, such as Ireland and Scotland in the resource-rich North Sea, are leading the charge.  Once the “big boys” finally get involved, the profits from our “Green Energy” will drive the exponential technological revolution.  The early concept of a nuclear power plant in every garage is being replaced by a renewable/hydrogen microgrid in every neighborhood.

 The challenges are great; but because there is a need and money to be made by that need and demand, we will move forward.  Despite all the depressing trials and tribulations we face today, I remain optimistic that there are enough intelligent people in this world to guide us through this.

 Le the sun shine, the wind blow, and the waters flow!

  Just a few readings:

 https://www.offshore-energy.biz/esb-and-dcarbonx-present-green-hydrogen-storage-project-in-kinsale/?fbclid=IwAR3S_5quPRqt25xKjHD92_ZMXIhtuSZqj3GYYP-pUoYqDqPpcQNgpJwQBG8

 https://www.invw.org/2021/04/23/using-hydrogen-to-back-up-the-grid/

 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-gamesa-r-siemens-energ-windpo/exclusive-siemens-spin-offs-tap-hydrogen-boom-in-wind-alliance-idUSKBN29I12Z?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTXpaaE5HVTJOakExTURZNCIsInQiOiJHck9EZ0JqVzVYZTFLdVQ4enk2VWxxU2lXYTEyTm93UzJJN0RYakhPcXRUWStDcTJxblI4bW95ZlhRMzlVbm1XQ1hjaHBzMUpzaUhpd25oNGR1OEVGN1daXC84czJwaFFMbmlVZ1BBT0tuVEs5UXFUVnc0bFltXC9TKzhCeStZYm5FIn0%3D

 https://techxplore.com/news/2021-08-hydrogen-economy-game-energy.html?fbclid=IwAR3DYiKqkDgXDeaQ5YnD_wnah9rdTG7npszK0a7WaHiblFmHc_A2lEoQdJg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A MAJOR STEP FORWARD

 

A MAJOR STEP FORWARD

 Zowie!!!  Here is one of the most significant pieces of news in all the years I have been advocating for renewables.

 https://electrek.co/2021/06/09/largest-us-solar-manufacturer-to-double-its-production-with-a-new-factory/?fbclid=IwAR2efg-FNTewFVUXyYGbYBz9FuLJqCS9_qPQuBa_jC6g7rrXN2ZXp80BCYA

 A manufacturing plant built in America by an American company, costing 680m, producing 500+ jobs, and manufacturing 3300MW of solar panels PER YEAR.  Why is this so significant?

 The growing shift from fossil fuels requires the ramp-up of renewables and storage.  Up to now, most of the solar panels utilized worldwide were manufactured in China, with their government subsidies and support dominating the industry.  Building the manufacturing industry here in the US displaces the import tariffs, transportation, and availability issues, and creates not only the manufacturing jobs but all the other associated infrastructure necessary for their deployment.  Lots of jobs!

 But the most significant feature is a blow to the pathetic and laughable nuclear industry.  Because of its intermittent availability, we (Humboldt State) showed that at the Marine Lab, 1/3 of the solar array supplied the electricity needed to run the pumps, etc, while 2/3 of the solar energy was converted to Hydrogen which was then used in a fuel cell to run the equipment at night and when the sun wasn’t shining.  So, if the new manufacturing plant produces 3300MW of solar generating capacity, 1/3 could be deployed for direct use, while 2/3 could be put into storage…batteries, and more probable Hydrogen in the future. 

 The last big nuclear power plant being built here in the US is Vogle #3 in Georgia and it has 1100MW of capacity.  Begun in 2006 with a price tag of $8 billion, it is 16 years in the making, and finishing it in the next few years will bring the price to over $14 billion.  The new generation of small modular reactors are decades away from commercialization (construction of the first pilot 365MW reactor in Wyoming) has not even begun yet, and will take years to build, test to see if the new technology will actually work, certify and license with the NRC and regulating bodies, and then either manufacturing on-site, or in the “factory” to be built that would fabricate and assemble the reactor vessels which would then be shipped out and installed at some location along with all the necessary infrastructure.  The specialized “new’ fuel will have to be produced, again with no thought or estimate as to what will happen to it when it is “spent.”  How long for all this to happen??? Ten years? Twenty years?  How much will it cost?  Decommissioning? Waste disposal?

 Meanwhile back in Ohio, the First Solar plant has produced the equivalent of one nuclear plant at the end of its first year. Those solar panels will be marketed and installed, producing 3300MW of clean, cheap, free fuel, no radioactive waste products… electricity added to our grid, used in small microgrids, or product exported to other countries throughout the world.  At the end of the following year, the same amount of capacity (3300MW) and production is added to the energy pool.  At the end of 10 years, when/if the Wyoming plant comes on-line with 365MW, First Solar will have put the equivalent of 30 of these SMRs into our electricity mix.  By then, we will have figured out the mix of storage…be it hydrogen, batteries, pumped storage, or whatever.  

American energy, American investment, American Jobs, and the addition and replacement of dirty electricity generation with cleaner, cheaper, more sustainable, and socially acceptable energy.  How many other companies will follow this path and construct new manufacturing plants?  What about all the other support industries…mounting racks, inverter and software technology, grid interties, battery and fuel cell manufacturing, companies hiring installers and maintenance personnel…it goes on and on.

 Adding to all this, we need to keep in mind all the other aspects of the energy we use.  A huge new industry in WIND…once the product of Denmark, etc, is in the US pipeline to do the same thing, with local manufacturing, assembly, installation on and offshore, and maintenance…creating a whole new array of jobs and economy.  Energy efficiency and the new technology of managing energy demand and use…all the things that have been dreamed about and advocated for years are at our doorstep.  Lots of issues to deal with…political, economic, environmental, and social; but we CAN meet the growing demand for electricity in our transition from fossil fuels! 

 The bright light of the sun is shining through!!!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

 Spring has sprung, and we’re feeling a bit of the changed climate here in normally wet Humboldt County.  We’re are about 64% of normal, after going through a rather dry but consistently cold winter. 

 On the energy front. I’ve been busy updating my presentation to the College of the Redwood environmental ethics class in a few weeks.  Again, my concern and work has focused on the relentless push for money and standing by the nuclear industry, by continuing the misinformation and hoax that nuclear power is cheap, safe, clean, and necessary.  Their new hope is for the construction and hopefully satisfactory operation of an untested prototype 80MW reactor up north in the state of Washington.  It’s supposed to take 8 years to build, and the industry is mum on what the construction price tag is (rumor has it at $250m); but whatever it is, 8 years from now renewables will have added some 20,000, 30,000, +++??MW to the electric grid at 1/10^th the price. The growth of solar and wind had been remarkably strong through the Trump years; but now once the new administration gets the right bills through congress, renewables will take off exponentially, not only here, but in the rest of the world.  It is really difficult for me to try and keep up with and document the enormous changes that are occurring technologically and economically (DOE is looking at a 60% reduction in the cost of solar within 10 years…that’s not just the cost of panels, but the entire infrastructure) and cheaper deployment of wind and a whole range of new technologies ranging from our oceans, geologic heat sources, and more.  Couple this with energy efficiency (look what LEDs have done to lighting,) technological improvements, and the implementation of batteries and HYDROGEN for storage, and our future will be very different from what it is today.

 What is coming out of new small tech companies, as well as what the established tech giants like GE are starting to do, indicates the huge potential for cleaner, safe, and cheaper energy, as well as a whole new array of jobs.  Businesses of all sizes, as well as commercial and municipality entities, are moving in the direction of small microgrids because it is cheaper and more efficient.  We can look back at the dramatic changes that computers, cell phones, and robotics have had over the years; and the changes coming will be even more dramatic and rapid.

 The nuclear industry continues to sidestep any sane and logical discussion of the storage of nuclear wastes, and what that is costing us now, and will in the future.  The reason is that and nobody knows.  Yet they trudge down the glorious path of greed and ignorance, telling us unlimited energy is there in the future.  Actually, fusion, from its source in the sun will give us all the energy we can ever demand.   Meanwhile, Fukushima is about to release hundreds of millions of gallons of radioactive water, because they are running out of room to store it, and they really don’t know what to do with it. 

 I am the most optimistic about our future than I have been in my entire academic life.  I will continue to fight against nuclear power because it is not cheap, safe, clean, and necessary for the future.

 The presentation for my class is available for viewing at:

     https://1drv.ms/u/s!AueW7Kaqwy6zguAM-r5-dycMd70QKw?e=SFocqS

 Let the sun shine and the wind blow, all over the earth!

FUKUSHIMA 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

 

Normally, anniversaries are a cause for celebration; this one for Fukushima is not.

I remember the day very well, since it was near my birthday, and all the events that followed.  Watching the various news feeds generated the eventual facts that this was a most serious event.  I was stunned at the reporting by Fox News and the other nuclear pontificators that this was nothing to worry about, that it won’t have any human or environmental health impacts, and that it would not deter the continued use and development of nuclear power in Japan and the rest of the world.  How wrong they were! With 54 reactors constructed in Japan, only 3 are currently in operation.  The following quotation is by one of the many experts in the anti-nuclear battle.  I leaned very heavily on his research and information over the past 40 years, and he has always been right on.  He best describes the current status.

 “March 11 is the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima accident; it’s really not over yet, since the site continues to produce vast amounts of contaminated water. There is also no real answer for what will be done with the molten cores of the reactors when they are eventually extracted. The cost of decommissioning will run into hundreds of billions of dollars; it will take decades.   The most immediate threat is the official plan to discharge about 1.3 million metric tons of radioactively contaminated water – about 340 billion gallons – containing tritium, strontium-90, carbon-14 and other radionuclides. This is the quickest and cheapest method of dealing with it; it is also the dirtiest option by far, in my view.  The proposed plan seems to be in violation of the 1972 London Anti-Dumping Convention, which unequivocally bans the dumping of radioactive waste in the seas. (Item 6 in Annex I, where the banned items are listed, states “Radioactive wastes or other radioactive matter.”) The Biden administration should join China, South Korea, Chile, and the Fukushima region’s fishing community in protesting the plan.  All of them should demand that TEPCO, the power plant’s owner, do a global environmental impact statement comparing the ecological and health consequences of all alternatives, including the option of extracting the tritium and storing it for several decades till it is almost all decayed away. That is the least that TEPCO and the Japanese government can do before taking irreversible action to dump on their neighbors and a part of their own food supply.”    Arjun Makhijani  3/7/21

Thirty-five years after the Chernobyl meltdown, not much progress has been made in fully “decommissioning” that site.  A big cover has been placed over the destroyed reactor building, and much of the melted fuel remains at the bottom of the rubble.  It seems the plan is to just let things remain where they are, and not go to the trouble and expense of extraction, packaging, and transporting the wastes to someplace else where it will just sit and be monitored.  The cover will protect the building for about a hundred years, and then something else will be proposed.

 Again, I ask the question “How expensive is nuclear power?  What is the TRUE cost of the back end requiring decommissioning and cleanup, whether from an accident or malfunction, or just the eventual end of life for reactors, fuel facilities, and the other huge and dirty part of their infrastructure?  What is the incalculable cost of waste disposal?

 A couple of items making the current news cycle include the beginning of the decommissioning of the tiny1.8MW nuclear reactor in Alaska.  Constructed in 1962 to power a military base, it shut down in 1972.  After the spent fuel and much of the highly radioactive materials were removed over the years (the actual cost is unknown,) the final decommissioning of the site has been authorized to begin, costing $67 million, and will take 10₊ years to complete. 

 In Hanford, the mega-project for the vitrification of the 56 million gallons of high-level waste is undergoing testing and start-up.  Built by Bechtel for over $27 billion after many cost overruns and 20 years of delay, the government is hopeful that it will work…we all hope so!  What it will do is process the liquid soupy waste left over from the reprocessing of high-level wastes from which Plutonium was extracted that has been sitting in the tank farm since the ’40s and ’50s.  Vitrification does not solve the nuclear waste problem.  What it does is de-liquify the sludge and mix it with sand at high temperature producing “glass logs” which encapsulate the high-level radionucleotides.  The “logs” are very radioactive, and will be added to the stockpile of spent fuel that will ultimately be disposed of…Yucca Mountain…a monitored retrievable site in Texas or New Mexico, or ???  They probably will remain on-site at Hanford for perhaps forever; only now the waste is solidified, rather than in a leaky liquid form.  There is very little mention of the radioactive and other toxic wastes produced in this process, and how they will be dealt with.  This project is supposed to take 30 years.  No mention as to how much it will cost to run the show, or deal with the waste stream.  Of note are the 600,000 gallons of similar wastes stored at the defunct nuclear site in West Valley, New York, or the thousands of gallons in Buffalo, or any of the contaminated locations throughout the U.S.  Will the government/industry eventually build another of these smelters on-site, or will they ship this highly dangerous stuff to Hanford?  Or will it remain in-situ for ?????

 The nuclear industry continues the many paths of trying to stay relevant in the energy game.  The “new” technology promises to be SAFER and CHEAPER.  And yet, the question of the cost of the back end is never addressed.  The new Plutonium cooled sodium reactors are still dreamed on the drawing boards, whose pilot projects have failed on all levels here and in other countries, would require REPROCESSING, producing a horrendous stream of liquid high-level wastes which are difficult and expensive to deal with.  However, it continues a huge cash flow from the taxpayer and ratepayer coffers to the huge corporations and their profits.

 Let the sun shine…power to the people!

Seismic Shift in Energy Policy

 The past number of weeks has been amazing in terms of pushing the new “Green Revolution,” or whatever you want to call. It.  The new administration seems to be serious in its understanding of the implications of climate change and is altering policies to move forward.  The record cold and snow in Texas only amplified the call that a new energy future is on it's way, pointing out the failures of the grid, reliance on resources that had not been appropriately put in place, and the overwhelming proof once again, that the bottom line in energy production and utility distribution is making money, at the expense of ratepayers and taxpayers. 

Fox News blamed renewables 128 times in a 48-hour period.  Although SOME wind turbines were frozen and not available, the main problem was not the shutdown of wind turbines, but that the ERCOT(the main utility) failed to properly upgrade most of their equipment to meet the increased stresses brought on by climate change.  80% of the Texas grid is fed by natural gas.  One of the four nuclear power plants shut down due to freezing in its cooling water supply pumps.  Gas wells, gas pipelines, and a lot of their infrastructure froze, creating a loss of pressure in the grid, which triggered a whole domino effect on the supply of electricity to the grid while demand was soaring.  Peak demand which the delivery system was unable to deliver.  Even at $9/kwh! 

 It will take years of legal, financial, political, and technological battles to sort through who is to blame, and who suffers the consequences.  ERCOT is saying it is not responsible for the $16 billion energy price-tag, and that ratepayers are stuck…read the fine print…changing this would “upset the power market structure.” Bank of America supposedly made hundreds of millions of dollars in that one week!  Who else?  Not the ratepayers. What the future hold is anybody’s guess, but there will be a shift in how the grid in Texas, as well as the other grids in the east and west, adapt to their aging infrastructure, and the increasing problems brought on by the escalating climate change. In a way, this is a blessed event focusing attention on what the scientist and other experts have been warning about for years.  A recent report has shown that the rates PG&E (my utility) charges its ratepayers have doubled since 2005, not so much because of the price of generation, but for infrastructure upgrades brought on by climate change.  The rates will continue to rise due to the years of mismanagement, bankruptcies, and political failure to recognize reality.  Many people complain about the projected costs of the Green Revolution…it is very expensive, but it is money that has to be/and will be spent regardless of which direction we go.  The age of the climate deniers is over…it is now the ignorant renewable deniers that will need to be educated and forced to move forward.  The business “complex” is already beginning the shift, with both old and new companies seeing a growth model with technology, manufacturing, jobs, and profits. 

 An interesting segment by 60 Minutes on NASA exposed a lot on the implications of how policy, technological development, and appropriations of tax-payers monies interact on the political stage.  NASA is developing a rocket to take astronauts to the moon.  It is very expensive, with major companies like Boeing involved.  Price overruns, delays, major setbacks…all part of the industrial “complex” which taxpayers have little say in.  Private companies, such as SpaceX, are far ahead and have developed the technology at 1/10^th the cost.  Why not shift to the cheaper private sector?  Congress controls the purse strings and appropriates to those entities with the biggest lobby fleet, and congressional pull.  Jobs for industries in their home state, and donations for their buddies.  We see the same issues with all aspects of our economic functions, especially with energy.  Who can make the most money, regardless of any equability for society and the environment?  This is especially true of the nuclear industry.

 The coming transitions will take time, and will rethink the huge grid we are currently dependent on.  Small, local, microgrids, appropriate local renewable generation, energy storage, and efficient energy use will all be dealt with in the future.  The promise is a cleaner, environmentally friendly, cheaper, and more equitable energy system.  The innovations and ideas already developed will only lead to what a lot of scientists and policy-makers have hoped identified as possible and ideal.  And it is affordable while still producing jobs and a profit.

THE NEW GREEN ERA

 

THE NEW GREEN ERA

 Just a few days after the historic inauguration, I am still in ecstasy, because we now have a new direction in addressing our energy, environmental, and economic problems.  We will shift away from fossil fuels, and continue the transition to renewables and sustainability.  This move has already enjoyed incredible success, despite the many political and economic hurdles thrown at it.  The progression to a renewable electric future is going to zoom forward in the following years.  The main reason is $$$$!!!! The driving force of our society!  I predicted many years ago to my students that the tiny CO2 molecule will alter our civilization into a new age---a renewable, cleaner, and more sustainable age.  Just common sense.  We now have the potential political will and the economic means for investments to make it happen, not only here in the US, but around the globe.

 We were told so many times and in so many ways that renewables (and I’ll focus here on solar) were way too expensive, which is no longer true.  Almost all new generation capacity in the past few years has been solar PV, mainly large MW projects, out-competing coal, nuclear, and in many ways edging out natural gas. My two solar systems returned 10% and 20% this last year…tax-free!! My contractor said if the last system I installed was configured today, the return would be closer to 30%! A 3-4 year payback, if that’s how some people understand investments.  Large projects will continue; but we will also see a new focus on existing solar windows…rooftops, parking lots, commercial buildings and facilities…so many potential sites, which do not need to be dedicated just to producing energy, but multiple uses are not mutually exclusive.

 The biggest driving force is all the new technology and development of electricity storage.  Massive battery systems are popping up all over the world, driven by all the research and progress being made by Tesla, VW…pretty much all the major auto manufacturers, as well as many small new startups. The Moss Landing gas-steam 800+MW plant I remember just south of San Francisco was closed a few years ago and replaced by more efficient gas engines, like at Humboldt Bay.  Now, there is a major battery storage system built on site.  I will use the power that’s generated there, as well excess power from the grid during the day, and supplying electricity in that time when renewables aren’t available…using the existing grid infrastructure. (6)  The same thing is happening in retired power plant sites all over the world. 

 But the “big future” is in Hydrogen, which I’ve touted for so many years.   Below are just a few of the hundreds of references I’ve come across in the past few months.  No longer falling on deaf and dumb ears, this future is going to make a lot of money for companies and investors, because it is not just one company or one technology, but all the necessary supportive infrastructure which is spread out over R&D, manufacturing, deployment, employment…huge transformation and potential for jobs and investment to our economy.  All the optimistic studies, reports, etc. over all the years have been correct…they were squashed by the lies and political manipulation of the fossil fuel industry.  Things have changed. Of course, we will continue to use fossil fuels when/where they are appropriate and cost-effective, and it will take time to make necessary changes.  We’ll see how new carbon capture technologies progress, making useful purposes for the CO2 waste product.  Our incredible science and technology are on the verge of incredible findings, now that we are getting back to realizing and trusting their incredible potential. There are so many people anxious to use their minds without being stifled by government and big business.  Money to be made…jobs…!!!

 Then there is the nuclear industry, stuck with a dinosaur technology.  Most of the existing nuclear plants will be retired in the next couple of decades, despite license extensions.  They are too expensive to run cost-effectively, and of course, they continue to generate wastes for which we have no solutions, other than to pay a lot of money to securely store and monitor them.  The industry touts the new cheaper and safer small modular reactors, a few which are about to leave the drawing boards and be constructed to see if/how they will work. (2) Supposedly, these SMR could be manufactured in a factory (sort of like PV modules) and then shipped and assembled on site.  Of course, they will still need heat exchangers, steam generators, turbines, generators, cooling water, a supply of enriched uranium fuel, and the never mentioned means to deal with both the high-level and low-level nuclear wastes.  Hell of a way to boil water! A lot of research has recently produced solar technologies capable of producing the high-temperature needs of the steel, cement, and other industries.  The nuke industry touts it is carbon-free…again, a misstatement…actually a lie.  The entire nuclear fuel cycle is enormously energy-intensive, producing lots of CO2.  There is also a lot of buzz about nukes producing Green Hydrogen! Another false hope for the industry is new advanced reactors which use plutonium as their main fuel, recycling high-level nuclear waste.  This requires reprocessing, which is a technological and economic nightmare, and will not play any kind of a role in our energy needs.  The Hanford Vitrification Plant, 17 years under construction, and over budget to the tune of $17 billion, is supposed to soon come online.  This one plant was built just to take the 56 million gallons of reprocessing wastes left over from bomb building and now in tanks, and solidifying them into glass logs.  It will take 30+ years and cost ??$$ to operate.  It will not reduce any of the radioactivity it is dealing with…it will just put them into a solid form.  Those glass logs will then be added to the spent fuel assemblies that are currently being store in pools or dry casks.  Reprocessing creates many more problems than what the industry purports it solves.  All the nuclear ideas, such as thorium reactors, have not been proven commercially economical or even feasible off the planning board.  And they all produce high-level wastes!!! Of course, that is never addressed, or given lip service.  There is no solution to nuclear waste!

 The industry has been recently touting the progress of fusion for potentially giving us unlimited energy.  Another hoax! Even if the astronomical problems are solved, it will be many years before commercial development; and even fusion produces a variety of nuclear wastes.  It is not as clean as spouted. I support a lot of different scientific research which, in reality, has no real value to me or the 99% of our global population…fusion, rockets to Mars, underwater cities…they allow for the accumulation of scientific knowledge which in the big picture has true value.  Fusion power may someday become a reality; but it suffers the same problems fission power faces…enormous infrastructure, technical complexity, unknown high cost, and it DOES produce radioactivity and radioactive wastes.  We already have a fusion reactor that works very well, is clean, sustainable, technologically useful, job-producing, and FREE…it’s called the SUN!

 As our civilization transitions from a hunter-gatherer society (I found it…that’s my oil…keep your hands off it!) to a harvester society (capturing the appropriate renewable resource, storing it for times of need, and sharing it with whatever needs and demands.) 

This is a major transition that will occur over TIME.  The complexity of this change lies in that there is no one thing, no silver bullet, no single technology; but an incredible variety of resources, supply, demand, and efficient use.  What is evident today is the enormous amount of money going into renewables, encouraging the incredible human ingenuity in our scientific and technologic spheres to bring on spectacular innovations and changes that will make for a more sustainable and just planet.

 Enough for now, since I could go on and on!  I will soon continue my blog with examples of all the new exciting ideas and projects that are now seeing the light of day.

 Here are a few references for the above:

1.     https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/mini-nukes-dirty-and-dangerous/?fbclid=IwAR14eIaY3jwgq2nrU5bIVuT9nkJCr1RJuRjRVer90uF0wbw_dm34xh9wwdM

2.     https://www.powermag.com/doe-rolls-out-nuclear-innovation-blueprint-ahead-of-biden-administration-takeover/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0dWaFlUUm1PR1JtTUdSayIsInQiOiJnZ3FrNHl6azZkTjBPa0U3K3pQSURaQkZEWmk4NURUSStsS3BCNTlTZjhWVVhVbVBvMjU2VEl1RjVxcUJkUXhSSUY0bnFkdk51RXpMcVYrQk5veDVGMUhqU2doTlF5MG1JeWl6clpRVENEMnEzUUIwZGFOdWlIdnNjYVlRdUdBNSJ9

3.     https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-20/solar-wind-and-battery-cleantech-are-now-mainstream-investments

4.     https://reneweconomy.com.au/fortescue-leads-stampede-into-green-energy-with-stunning-plans-for-235-gigawatts-of-wind-and-solar-27936/?fbclid=IwAR1pJGelMsxXrIFoHc95iNKyTsT6XN84Owr59Pfqysp3n1EmS1GRh0Hel8M

5.     https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-hydrogen/canada-unveils-hydrogen-strategy-to-kick-start-clean-fuel-industry-idUSKBN28Q2XC

6.     http://digital.olivesoftware.com/olive/ODN/SanFranciscoChronicle/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=HSFC%2F2021%2F01%2F17&entity=Ar04104&sk=CC46A142&mode=text