{"id":346116,"date":"2024-10-09T11:53:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T09:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=346116"},"modified":"2024-10-09T11:53:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T09:53:18","slug":"windmills-and-sunshine-will-never-deliver-net-zero-but-you-know-what-might","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=346116","title":{"rendered":"Windmills and sunshine will never deliver net zero. But you know what might?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Nuclear power plant with yellow field and big blue clouds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britain is becoming a case study in the consequences of shamefully wasting nuclear know-how<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t watch it if you don\u2019t want to get angry \u2013 to my mind, it\u2019s one of the most depressing clips on the internet. For the purposes of research, I\u2019ve just subjected myself to it again and fear I may need to book an appointment with my dentist because it made me grind my teeth so hard. The Telegraph<\/a> has the story.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a short interview filmed in 2010, Nick Clegg, at his most smug and I-know-best, casually dismisses the possibility of increasing the supply of nuclear energy in the UK on the grounds that the benefits would not be realised until 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grrr \u2026 oh, there go my crowns!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is, of course, 20\/20 hindsight to point out that action then would have resulted in the nuclear reactors coming online just as Russia invaded Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, it\u2019s long been apparent that many politicians, the chattering classes and environmentalists (let\u2019s call them \u201cClegg-nuts\u201d) have a massive blindspot about nuclear power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the UK\u2019s last remaining coal-fired power station<\/a> and steel-making blast furnace shutting in the same week, there\u2019s been lots of discussion of how our energy policy has resulted in higher electricity prices than any other country<\/a> in Europe, which has in turn hollowed out a once-proud industrial heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But actually the problem\u2019s much worse than that: we\u2019ve hamstrung our ability to compete in the industries of the future too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was once hoped that rich countries could reduce their carbon emissions not only by switching to renewable sources but also by reducing energy consumption. You only need to look at what\u2019s happening in the US to realise this is becoming an increasingly forlorn hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI), to name just one area, looks set to cause a huge spike in electricity use<\/a>. Data centres already account for 3.5pc of all the electricity consumed in the US today and this figure is forecast to rise to 9pc in just five years, according to Barclays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, unlike manufacturing or other industries that operate during daytime business hours, data centres run around the clock, which means they must be able to access steady baseload power 24\/7. Couple this with the ambitious net zero pledges of most tech companies<\/a> and there\u2019s really only one answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft and Amazon have recently signed deals with nuclear power plants and Google is looking to do the same. Constellation Energy is planning to reactivate a nuclear reactor at its Three Mile Island<\/a> site in Pennsylvania, after striking a deal to provide power for Microsoft\u2019s AI operations. The site became infamous because of an accident in 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US Department of Energy recently put out a report showing that including nuclear in the energy mix reduces costs by about a third compared to a combination of renewables and storage. And this is in the US where solar tends to be cheaper because there\u2019s so much unused land and, you know, the sun actually shines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what should we say to the Clegg-nuts who believe that nuclear power is too time-consuming, too costly and too risky? The obvious rebuttal is: compared to what? The UK is fast-becoming a case study in the consequences of shamefully wasting your nuclear know-how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But rather than bang my head against that particular wall again, let\u2019s take a (very) different tack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine aliens arriving on earth. Contrary to the Hollywood propaganda, they\u2019re not here to wipe out, enslave or harvest us. In fact, they\u2019re just passing through and want to offer us the energy technology being used by every other sentient species in the known universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will result in fewer deaths per terawatt-hour of electricity produced \u2013 100 times fewer than gas and 1,000 times fewer than coal. It will produce less carbon dioxide (which they\u2019ve noticed has been building up on our admittedly very pretty planet) over the whole life-cycle of the energy source, even compared to solar and wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The required fuel is relatively abundant and spread around the world (not just the dodgy parts). It also contains 100,000 times more energy per kg than oil and occupies 2m times less space. This means it would be easy to maintain strategic reserves \u2013 granting energy self-sufficiency to any country that wants it and reducing the chances of geopolitical tension over access to hydrocarbons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would mankind say to this intergalactic gift?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t watch it if you don\u2019t want to get angry \u2013 to my mind, it\u2019s one of the most depressing clips on the internet. For the purposes of research, I\u2019ve just subjected myself to it again and fear I may need to book an appointment with my dentist because it made me grind my teeth so hard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":346120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818154,691830860,691818206],"class_list":{"0":"post-346116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-net-zero","9":"tag-nick-clegg","10":"tag-nuclear-power","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0-Nuclear-power-plant.jpeg?fit=3867%2C2578&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1s2w","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":201143,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=201143","url_meta":{"origin":346116,"position":0},"title":"Endless Energy: Nuclear Provides Prospect of Safe, Reliable & Affordable Power Forever","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/24\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Putin\u2019s Ukrainian adventure has Europeans talking about nuclear power as if their existence depends on it. 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