Reflections about fossil fuels, nuclear power and carbon dioxide
- Article Countries: USA
- Article Year: 2022
Paul Driessen, Senior Policy Analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, CFACT, JD, B.A. Geology and Field Ecology, David Wojick, Heartland Institute, Ph.D. Philosophy of Science and Mathematical Logic, B.Sc. Civil Engineering: We castigated Multilateral anti-Development Banks for using exaggerated and fabricated manmade climate cataclysm claims to justify rejecting funding for coal and natural gas electricity generation, promoting unreliable renewable sources – and thereby keeping impoverished nations poor, disease ridden, largely jobless and dying far earlier than they should.
Hal Doiron, Don Bogard, The Right Climate Stuff Team: TRCS is a team of retired Apollo Lunar Program specialists performing their own independent investigation into the man-made and natural global warming issues. This article presents an evaluation of using a photo-voltaic electrical generating systems on his home by Hal Doiron and on overview on man-made and natural global warming, and renewable and nuclear energy by Don Bogard.
Bill McKibben, founder of the grassroots climate campaign - website 350.org: Titled “The Sky’s the Limit,” a report by the London-based think tank Carbon Tracker Initiative begins by declaring that “solar and wind potential is far higher than that of fossil fuels and can meet global energy demand many times over.” Scientists have long noted that the sun directs more energy to the Earth in an hour than humans use in a year. But, until very recently, it was too expensive to capture that power. That’s what has shifted. On the actual Earth, circa 2021, the report reads, “with current technology and in a subset of available locations we can capture at least 6,700 PWh p.a. [petawatt-hours per year] from solar and wind, which is more than 100 times global energy demand.”
This idea, while numerically accurate, ignores the facts that solar (and wind) energy have the least energy density by far and are not always available and are not steady. All basic essentials for a successful modern world with respect for the environment and wildlife habitat.
Scott Bean, Business Development Representative, Steenkampskraal Holdings Limited/Steenkampskraal Rare Earths: Germany's energy policies often get good press highlighting fleeting moments of significant output, negative prices, capacity installation, and more. Rarely does news coverage add context to these stories that allows us to comprehend what the consequences of these events are for consumers, the grid, the environment, the economy, and Earth as a whole.
Michel Gay: Le nucléaire tient depuis longtemps une place de choix dans la thématique "énergie et environnement". Pour les antinucléaires, c'est généralement le côté négatif de cette technique qui est souligné. Le discours le plus fréquemment relayé par les médias est de considérer que la production électronucléaire est potentiellement porteuse de dangers encore pire que ceux du changement climatique, du gaz et même du charbon. Il faudrait donc s'en passer au profit des éoliennes et des panneaux photovoltaïques notamment.
Mike Conley and Tim Maloney: This is an excellent detailed, easy to follow analysis of Stanford University Professor of Civil Engineering, Mark Jacobson's claim that the world can acquire all the electrical energy it needs from wind turbines and solar panels. In short, Jacobson's claim is not achievable and a waste of money and time. What are the most important roles of the sun? 1) Heat the planet to livable conditions, 2) Evaporate ocean water, 3) Cause plants to grow and be the basis of the food chain, 4) Cause wind to bring the evaporated ocean water over the land and drop it as rain and snow. Electricity from wind and solar besides being unreliable and unpredictable is extremely dilute. As the authors clearly point out, replacing worn out solar panels on Jacobson's grand scheme would require tremendous amounts of replacement parts every day and the Earth doesn't have easy access to all these materials. The authors point the way with nuclear. Good reading for everyone.
Rolls-Royce said that it expects to receive regulatory approval from the British government by 2024 for its 470-megawatt small modular reactor and that it will begin producing power on Britains’ electric grid by 2029.
Will that happen? Time will tell. Many nuclear projects and startups have blown past their projected in-service dates. But Rolls-Royce’s announcement is important for two reasons. First, it adds more credence to the notion that a global nuclear renaissance is, in fact, underway. Second, Rolls-Royce’s new 470-megawatt reactor design shows that due to its unsurpassed power density, nuclear energy is the only way we can produce electricity at scale while preserving the natural environment.
How has Vladimir Putin—a man ruling a country with an economy smaller than that of Texas, with an average life expectancy 10 years lower than that of France—managed to launch an unprovoked full-scale assault on Ukraine?
The reason Europe didn’t have a muscular deterrent threat to prevent Russian aggression—and in fact prevented the U.S. from getting allies to do more—is that it needs Putin’s oil and gas.
John Droz is the publisher of "Energy and Environmental Newsletter." This is a sample newsletter showing types of topics covered. We encourage everyone to go to the link to read the actual articles.
By the year 2032, Irish and European historians will wonder as to how the Western World in the early 2020’s unquestioningly believed that there was an “existential climate emergency”, predicated on exaggerated IPCC models and unbalanced media myopia.
They will also wonder how the associated costly drive towards intermittent renewables did not take into account the fundamental electrical engineering imperative of maintaining power grid reliability, in the then absence of any viable grid-scale storage technology.
Sierra Club: Wind energy is the fastest-growing source of power in the world. Who has heard something similar about investing in a fast growing stock that for one reason or other, disappears slowly or rapidly from a public listing? Did the world abandon sailing ships and wind mills? Why would the world turn to wind turbines for generating electricity that has to have steady, tightly controlled service 24/7? For other opinions see articles by John Droz and Jon Boone on this website.
Jon Boone, environmentalist, naturalist, bird and nature artist, wind energy expert: So how to make electricity in the Sierra Club's world of the future? The answer: RENEWABLES! Lots of wind and solar. And a move away from central grid dependency by making wind especially part of a distributed generation micro-grid system located near demand centers. All this would be supported by the so-called smart grid, requiring substantial new transmission lines in an effort to improve efficiency and reliability, thereby saving fossil fuel and avoiding carbon emissions while conserving demand by moving it to off-peak hours. The image, but hardly the reality, is one of downsizing and intimacy, and a transition away from centralized control.
Small nuclear reactors offer extensive flexibility, and they run continuously, independent of day or night, rain or sunshine, wind or no wind. They also do not need a system for delivering a continuous fuel supply; deliveries two or three times a year would be sufficient. Nuclear power is the future.
Robert Bryce, author of “Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper,” captures the headlong rush of Western culture’s endless drive for ever better technology. It is an extraordinary impulse that has created a world in which more people live longer and more comfortably than ever before. Mr. Bryce’s policy prescriptions will be more welcome in Houston than in the White House. He contends that the pantheon of environmentalists like Mr. Gore, Bill McKibben, Amory Lovins and Greenpeace are wildly optimistic in their extravagant hopes for wind power, solar cells and biofuels.