CARBON REDUCTION
Opinion Nuclear energy
WHY ISN’T THIS GOVERN
SCIENCE?
The government is failing to underpin
its energy policy with scientific
research, writes Richard H Phillips,
who heralds nuclear as ‘the greenest
of technologies’
S
ince President Barack CCS: a pipe dream industry Then, there’s the question of The National Grid: 98.5%
Obama has appointed a won’t touch? pressure. As CO
2
must be stored efficient
Nobel Laureate in physics Alongside other low-carbon solu- as a liquid, it would have a high, As wind turbines are “embedded”
as his new “Energy Man” to tions such as nuclear, politicians 800psi pressure (30 times as much in the grid network, their variable
guarantee scientific integrity in penning the Conservative’s latest as car tyres) – making contain- contribution has to be accepted
policy making, why isn’t Britain green paper and the government’s ment very difficult. and balanced against demand.
following his lead? With green Low Carbon Industrial Strategy Experienced professional electrical
technologies being held up as seem to advocate carbon capture Wind turbines: not up to engineers fear that national capaci-
Britain’s success strategy for the and storage (CCS) trials and wind the task ty above about 8-12% by turbines
future, why isn’t the government turbine technology. Wind technology is enormously will be difficult to control and may
getting independent, scientific ver- With CCS, there are major inefficient. well result in large-scale outages.
ification on the viability of wind problems to overcome – not least At one point the 23,200MW What is more, additional wind
energy and carbon capture and the is a probable trebling of current wind turbine capacity in energy would need a massive
storage technologies? When indus- electricity prices. After extracting Germany was producing just increase in the size of the grid,
try is pulling out, can these untest- the carbon dioxide from fossil 1MW – barely enough to run 500 meaning more pylons and more
ed, potentially expensive technolo- fuelled power stations, there is the 2KW fan heaters. wires in the countryside and
gies really solve our energy crisis issue of storage. Based on the The harvesting of such a greater fossil fuel back-up to bal-
without massive subsidies? UK’s annual coal consumption of very dilute energy source ance the grid for when the wind
In today’s non-scientific world, 55M tonnes, one day’s production means that for the same annual dropped.
politicians commonly comment of CO
2
from all coal-fired power output an area of land more than This means politicians’ ambi-
about the “zero-carbon, free ener- stations would occupy a tank one one thousand times greater than tions for 30% or even 75% being
gy” that is wind. Yet turbines have thousand metres long, 24 metres- that of conventional power sta- mentioned in the House are unre-
a carbon footprint about twice that wide (a three-lane motorway) tions has to be allocated to alistic – resulting in certain grid
of nuclear, seldom are more than and ten metres high (a three- wind turbines. Already this is failure and blackouts.
28% efficient, so produce energy storey house). So, imagine the absorbing huge subsidies making Despite its efficiency, both
that costs twice that of nuclear volume decades of production turbines a copper-bottomed parties are highly critical of the
power. Is this free? would take up. investment. current National Grid. Compared
26 June 2009 ❘ Sustainable Business
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