Nuclear power producers scared of wind competition in UK
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environment |
other press 
Thursday March 26, 2009 00:26
by Diet Simon
The French government-owned power monopoly EdF and the German power giant E.ON have warned the British government they may be forced to drop plans to build a new generation of nuclear power plants in that country unless the government scales back its targets for wind power.
The threat has turned into an own-goal because in it the power companies admit what nuclear opponents have always maintained: Serious expansion of renewable energy sources leaves no room for inflexible nuclear power stations, which are designed for the most constant output achievable.
"The analysis of EdF und E.ON is correct,” says Ulrich Kelber, a senior member of the Social Democratic parliamentary party in Berlin. “A high proportion of nuclear power does not jibe with a high proportion of renewables.”
Kelber says the latest move by the power giants makes ever clearer that nuclear energy is a hindrance-technology standing in the way of climate-compatible energy production and more competition on energy markets.
EdF’s and E.ON’s demands – contained in submissions to the British government's renewable energy consultation – reinforce the worries of wind developers that the two sectors cannot thrive simultaneously.
The power giants said attempts to reach 35% of electricity generated by renewables is not only unrealistic but also damaging to alternative schemes such as nuclear plants.
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3Good news from the highest administrative court in Germany: The country’s two oldest nuclear power stations are not allowed to extend their operation. Anti-nuclear groups are likely to rejoice.
This decision makes it even more likely that all nuclear power stations in Germany will stop operation in a bit more than a decade, as in the corresponding law.
The ruling by the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig concerns the power stations at Brunsbüttel, about 90 kms from Hamburg at the mouth of the Elbe River, and Biblis A, about 60 kms from Frankfurt. Hamburg is Germany’s second-largest city with about 1.7 million people, Frankfurt its fourth-largest with 650,000.
Block A in Biblis was the first nuclear power plant in the then West Germany, starting operation in 1961. Brunsbüttel started up in 1976.
Both nukes have a history of mishaps, including near-meltdown at Brunsbüttel. Biblis has the dubious reputation of being a "junkyard reactor" because of the frequency of its breakdowns.
The Leipzig judgment, handed down on Thursday (26 March) confirmed those of lower courts and rejected complaints by the power companies operating the plants.
The owners wanted to achieve longer running times by transferring the remaining output quota of another station to these two.
There is tension in the fractious coalition government of conservatives and social democrats over a past government’s law to close down all German nuclear power production in about ten years.
The power industry is lobbying hard to have the law overturned and is backed in this by Chancellor Angela Merkel, a conservative.
by fizick 2009-03-26 9:32 AM +0800
And the nuclear power industry is correct to be concerned. Wind will soon be cheaper than nuclear. And long distance transmission technology is making wind more base load suitable. Ultra high voltage DC transmission is already a mature technology. The Chinese are building an UHV DC grid to transport power from the three gorges hydro project as far as 4500 km. We are also likely to have room temperature superconducting technology in the not too distant future.
Improving storage technologies are also increasing the base load suitability of wind and other renewables. Ultra-capacitors in particular are set to revolutionize this aspect of energy technology.
Fission power is a dud and obsolete technology, or soon will be. It makes no sense to be investing in this technology.
Link here
The lies
by Mar Bucknell 2009-03-27 2:18 AM +0800
Wind has always been cheaper than nuclear if you do cradle to grave accounting. Nuclear only looks attractive even in capitalist economics terms if you don't count the costs of decommissioning reactors and storing waste.
The Americans are already well ahead in their plans to completely wean the American economy off oil and gas.
Its going to be the next "Apollo Program".
An area the size of Ireland in the The Nevada desert will be converted into a "Solar Collector" farm and the energy fed via HVDC lines into the rest of the country.
Europe and Africa could could similarly transform vast tracks of the empty Sahara ..it they had the political will.
(DC is essential over long distances because long distance AC lines can "resonate " at 50Hz and become "Dipole Aerials"..effectively radiating all the energy into space as radio waves at 50 Hz )
Read all about it:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan
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