{"id":448367,"date":"2026-06-03T12:42:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T19:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=448367"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:42:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T19:42:03","slug":"energy-security-is-critical-for-coffee-and-heart-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=448367","title":{"rendered":"Energy security is critical \u2026 for coffee and heart surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Kelvin Kemm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russian incursion into Ukraine and all the current drama in the Middle East have focused attention on the question of energy security. So, what is energy security? If you get up at 2 am feeling restless and you want to make yourself a cup of coffee, you switch the kitchen light on, then flick the switch of the coffee maker. Both switches should work immediately. That is energy security for you. You always want to be certain that your switches work when you need them. Your monthly electricity bill includes a component which accounts for this security. The electricity utility guarantees you a good 24\/7 service, so they integrate systems to ensure that the electricity always flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your home electricity does not flow, you don\u2019t get your coffee. You can survive that. But what if you are undergoing open-heart surgery and the electricity to the operating theatre stops? We can go on \u2018up the line\u2019 and ask \u2013 what if electricity to the entire city stops?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The human body relies on your blood flowing all the time. On the outward journey, it carries oxygen and energy. The energy is in the form of the nutrients that your cells need. Your heart also needs to pump to keep it all moving. The heart is supplied by your blood flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the return journey, the blood is the refuse-removal system. That flow is critical too and also needs the heart pumping. If this whole circuit stops, or slows down, you are in great trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same is true of the electricity distribution system of a city, a state, or the whole country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, let me point out that energy is not only electricity, but also includes fossil fuels such as oil and gas. Oil derivatives not only fuel motor cars, but they also provide many chemicals critical to daily life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine if your next-door neighbor, or someone you hardly knew, controlled an on\/off switch to your blood flow. Not very reassuring, is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, take a moment to consider who holds an on\/off switch to your flow of electricity and oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of members of the European Union found this out the hard way when Russian gas stopped flowing. Many countries in the world are finding out right now what happens when flows of Middle Eastern oil get restricted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are cartoons going the rounds of people being harnessed to taxis like horses to carts or, putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, pushing cars around. These are jokes, but it is no joke when the food supply dwindles because the farmer\u2019s tractor can\u2019t run and the grain-milling machines stop working because the electricity has stopped. So, it is imperative to ensure a supply of baseload electricity. Inherently included in baseload power is a security factor. Solar and wind power don\u2019t have that. You only get solar when the sun shines and wind when the wind decides to blow \u2026 at the correct speed. Additionally, wind must not blow too hard, or the wind turbine has to put its brakes on to stop it damaging itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK, OK, some people say. Just install storage, which means batteries. But if you do that, you have to add more solar and wind to charge the batteries. The surplus solar and wind produced under variable optimal conditions will not be enough. So, you have to build more variable solar and wind. Then what happens is that it rains for a week. So the solar output drops right down, and the wind falls off too. The result \u2026 the energy system gets a heart attack. It is extremely difficult and expensive to build energy security into a wind or solar supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy security means: peace of mind for all citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is necessary to look at energy security on a city level, state level, and national level. On a national level, one has to worry about the Middle East, and EU countries have to worry about Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One clear solution for city and state levels is to introduce nuclear power. This should be a mixture of large nuclear reactors and the new Small Modular Reactors. The huge advantage of SMRs is that you can spread them around. They are small enough to power a district, a mine, or industrial grouping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A really important point is that nuclear fuel lasts for three years in the nuclear reactor. Therefore, there is no need to worry about the continuous flow of fuel, which is such a problem with oil and gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent international political upheavals have vividly shown the importance of energy security. If you want to guarantee your 2 am coffee, then city, state, and industrial planners need to now have the wisdom to plan for the integration of systems such as SMRs, so that you keep the political control of your own on\/off switch very close to home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Russian incursion into Ukraine and all the current drama in the Middle East have focused attention on the question of energy security. So, what is energy security? If you get up at 2 am feeling restless and you want to make yourself a cup of coffee, you switch the kitchen light on, then flick the switch of the coffee maker. Both switches should work immediately. That is energy security for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":448373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[691843483,691818128,691821808,691818886,691824035,691833658],"class_list":["post-448367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-electricity-distribution-system","tag-energy","tag-energy-security","tag-fossil-fuel","tag-nuclear-reactors","tag-small-modular-reactors-smrs-2","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0-Copilot_Energy-security-is-critical-%E2%80%A6-for-coffee-and-heart-surgery.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1SDJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":285292,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=285292","url_meta":{"origin":448367,"position":0},"title":"Country On Green Transition\u2019s Leading Edge Will Fire Up Coal Plants To Meet Demand This Winter","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/27\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A country on the forefront of the green transition will put several mothballed coal-fired power plants back online ahead of the upcoming winter, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday, says The Daily Caller. 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