nuclear-news

UK’s opportunity for alternatives to nuclear power

In fact more nonnuclear generation is already under construction and will come on-line by 2015 than is scheduled to go off-line.

Another blow to nuclear plans, Ruscombe Green, 17 May 2010, Alternatives to nukes Last month a PricewaterhouseCoopers study showed that Europe could meet all its electricity needs from renewable sources by 2050 by using a “super-smart” grid powered by solar farms in North Africa, wind farms in northern Europe and the North Sea, hydro-electric from Scandinavia and the Alps and a complement of biomass and marine energy (see here article re solar plans in N Africa).

Now, the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) has launched a “Re-thinking 2050” report, outlining how the European Union can switch to a 100% renewable energy supply. In a letter to The Independent, 30 academics discuss the view that unless we start on new nuclear construction now, the lights will start to go out by 2015. They say the generation gap by 2015 identified in some recent policy papers is not supported by evidence, in that it assumes that no new generation capacity of any kind will be built over the next five years.

In fact more nonnuclear generation is already under construction and will come on-line by 2015 than is scheduled to go off-line. A further 1GW of new capacity beyond 2015 is being planned, permitted or constructed. Although this is predominantly gas-fired, the International Energy Agency has made it clear that gas is available in an increasingly global market to deliver reliable and affordable access for the UK……..
For all things nuclear download the excellent summary from no2nuclear:
www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/nuclearnews/NuClearNewsNo18.pdf
Ruscombe Green: Another blow to nuclear plans

May 16, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, UK | antinuclear, climate change, energy efficiency, nuclear costs, renewable energy, renewables, solar, wind