Rob Beckers
22nd April 2014, 18:17
Today is (another) Earth Day. I'm not much for these special days celebrating the dozens of occasions we now have them for, though I suppose if it helps raise a little awareness for the plight of the planet that's a good thing.
It's a mixed bag when it comes to reasons to celebrate this Earth Day (or not): On the one side the UN panel on climate change has pretty much said that the world is doing jack s$%t and we're looking at irreversible consequences at this point. On the other hand, CNN had a report today stating that 38 GW of solar PV was installed last year, bringing the total to 134 GW. That's pretty good! Now, a PV plant is not the same as a coal/gas/nuclear plant since solar is intermittent; compare this to the average traditional power plant size of around 1.5 - 2 GW or so and we now have a serious amount of solar contributing! The rate of increase is also quite astounding, essentially the PV growth in 2013 was around 30% of the installed capacity. That is rapidly moving in the right direction! The story for wind power is similar as well.
Also mentioned was that plans for new nuclear power plants are essentially dead. What was once "too cheap to meter" is now too expensive to even contemplate. No nuclear power plant ever made any money (short of government subsidies going into corporate coffers) and with the cost of natural gas and coal as low as they are there is no economic case to be made for nuclear. Old nuclear plants are being decommissioned as well, as they are turning into money pits to upgrade and maintain.
Not that (in particular) coal plants are such a great addition. And there is the "clean coal" oxymoron that the industry is trying very hard to make us believe in.. While nuclear plants do not produce greenhouse gasses they do produce radioactive waste, and with no good solution for that in sight I'd rather see more PV modules and wind turbines installed!
With that, have a Happy Earth Day!
-RoB-
It's a mixed bag when it comes to reasons to celebrate this Earth Day (or not): On the one side the UN panel on climate change has pretty much said that the world is doing jack s$%t and we're looking at irreversible consequences at this point. On the other hand, CNN had a report today stating that 38 GW of solar PV was installed last year, bringing the total to 134 GW. That's pretty good! Now, a PV plant is not the same as a coal/gas/nuclear plant since solar is intermittent; compare this to the average traditional power plant size of around 1.5 - 2 GW or so and we now have a serious amount of solar contributing! The rate of increase is also quite astounding, essentially the PV growth in 2013 was around 30% of the installed capacity. That is rapidly moving in the right direction! The story for wind power is similar as well.
Also mentioned was that plans for new nuclear power plants are essentially dead. What was once "too cheap to meter" is now too expensive to even contemplate. No nuclear power plant ever made any money (short of government subsidies going into corporate coffers) and with the cost of natural gas and coal as low as they are there is no economic case to be made for nuclear. Old nuclear plants are being decommissioned as well, as they are turning into money pits to upgrade and maintain.
Not that (in particular) coal plants are such a great addition. And there is the "clean coal" oxymoron that the industry is trying very hard to make us believe in.. While nuclear plants do not produce greenhouse gasses they do produce radioactive waste, and with no good solution for that in sight I'd rather see more PV modules and wind turbines installed!
With that, have a Happy Earth Day!
-RoB-