Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on November 6th, 2009
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)
NEGAWATTS! NOT NUCLEAR POWER
We are reminded of this today by Leon Di Marco in a letter to The Financial Times.
Nuclear power is simply a distraction that wastes capital and manpower.
Published in The Financial Times: November 6 2009.
From Mr Leon Di Marco.
Sir, Your eminently sensible editorial “Follow the science of climate change” (November 2) is spoiled by the following (my italics): “The least glamorous forms of energy conservation, such as insulating buildings properly and making transport more efficient, still have a huge contribution to make. So do nuclear power …”
As Amory Lovins has been pointing out for decades (”negawatts”), energy efficiency is the first port of call in any carbon argument. But he also correctly points out that nuclear is a distraction. To put numbers on this, of the world primary energy consumption of 10TW-plus, nuclear could optimistically provide less than 500GW over the plant’s lifetime before the fuel runs out, and so a contribution of less than 5 per cent. Hardly huge.
Furthermore, the opportunity cost is completely disproportionate, not only in the capital requirement but also in the manpower. The Open University is already in the process of setting up a professional nuclear engineering course, which will mop up resources that would be far better put to developing renewables.
We have only one shot at this.
Leon Di Marco,
FSK Technology,
London W9, UK
—————
We found on google: FSK Technology Services, Inc. is a growing small business founded and owned by three women and showcasing a team of professionals with extensive commercial and government customer experience.
Core strengths include instructional technology, technical training and training support services, as well as technical documentation for hardware and software. The FSK team also provides information technology, and engineering and engineering support services. It tailors business process solutions for customers’ specific needs. Additional capabilities include program management, business analysis and proposal development, systems engineering, strategic IT planning, and engineering test and evaluation.
————–
Also, a previous letter to the editor from Leon Di Marco:
http://euractiv.blogactiv.eu/2009/01/19/…
Smart Grids? Smart Baloney!
Posted by Mike Parr on January 19th, 2009
Organization: PWR
In reaction to the EurActiv article:
Smarter grids ‘crucial’ for delivery of EU climate goals
Response to Smart Grids? Smart Baloney! »»
leon di marco
Comment by leon di marco | 2009/01/24
Mike Parr is wrong and apparently does not know what smart meters/grids will do- switching smart appliances on and off will be an automatic process and does not rely on the user – this would be unrealistic – there is no danger of smart meters being
expensive if they are installed in high volume, as in italy the control of the grid will be more complex but this will allow much more flexible use of intermittent renewable power and a much more efficient power distribution network ultimately when the European green energy supergrid is introduced an energy superhighway will convey electricity round Europe and the Mediterranean will become a major source of EU solar power, which will benefit us all.
Permalink |
| 
Email This Article
Posted in California, Charts, Database, China, Denmark, European Union, France, Futurism, Global Warming issues, Policy Lessons from Mad Cow Disease, Real World's News, Reporting from Washington DC, Sweden, The US States, United Kingdom
