Nuclear energy

Nuclear energy is another alternative source of energy instead of obtaining our energy from fossil fuels. It is widely used throughout the world although this method is primarily used in developed countries such as within the EU or in USA and Russia due to high costs and safety issues. The method uses decay of radioactive materials such as uranium to convert heat and nuclear energy into other types of energy for electricity and transport uses. It involves nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion although most of the nuclear energy is currently obtained from nuclear fission. The process of obtaining nuclear energy starts with mining uranium from underground and it is extracted as uranium ore which is then converted into more safe compounds and transported to nuclear energy plants. There it is converted back to uranium and uranium rods are produced. They are placed inside the reactor where their lifetime is approximately 6 years.

A lot of research has been done into nuclear energy and more efficient, safer and simpler to operate reactors are constantly being invented. Especially after the major nuclear catastrophes caused by nuclear energy generation such as Chernobyl, safety become the key primary issue of focus for further research. Providing the new plants are safe, nuclear power could contribute significantly towards mitigating the effect of high GHGs emissions and climate change. It is generally quite a clean process with little emissions and environmental impact compared to other energy obtaining methods. Figure 1 below shows CO2 emissions from various methods of obtaining energy including nuclear. It is obvious that the carbon footprint from nuclear energy is minimal.

Figure 1.

Source:Adamantiades, 2009. CO2 emissions from selected energy chains.

Nuclear power’s share of worldwide electricity production rose from less than 1% in 1960 to 16% in 1986 and that held constant up until 2005, nuclear power has seen slight decrease since (Adamantiades, 2009). However nuclear electricity generation is still concentrated in developed countries- half of the world’s reactors are in N. America and W. Europe and less than 10% in developing countries. This is shown by figure 2 below which shows the nuclear share of total electricity generation by country and thus suggests countries that utilize nuclear power the most. Regardless of the current figures, more than 40 developing countries- from Gulf Middle East to Latin American ones, have recently asked United Nations for approval of nuclear plants plans with grand schemes in mind.

Figure 2.

Source:Adamantiades, 2009. Nuclear share of total electricity generation in 2009.

Nevertheless nuclear energy also has its disadvantages. One of the main concerns is safety of the method. Three major nuclear catastphones have occurred- the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine (USSR at the time) in 1986, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 and the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. These all present major sources of concern as the chances of such disasters occurring are very low yet they have massive consequences, which are felt to the present day. They cause all sorts of nasty mutations due to radioactivity and make massive areas of land no longer viable for any human use. Thus public attitudes towards nuclear power are not always positive. Figure 3 below shows public attitudes towards nuclear power in the US over the last part of the 20^th century. Unless the public can be assured that this method is safe, they could protest against this method of obtaining energy especially in democratic countries. The public also has concerns that civilian nuclear power may lead to facilitation and encourages research into nuclear weapons, which if used, could destroy our planet.

Figure 3.

Source:Adamantiades, 2009. Public attitudes towards nuclear power in the US, 1983-2008.

Furthermore, there remains the problem of radioactive waste. This primarily consists of unconverted uranium rods that can no longer be placed in the reactors. There are currently no permanent safe disposals of such waste and it is stored at nuclear plants in guarded areas. It has been suggested that perhaps burying it in specific monitored nuclear waste sites underground is an option however this has not been implemented to this day. Nuclear waste is especially a concern in the developing world where security remains more of an issue and thus there is the question as to whether such countries should be given the green light to construct and use nuclear energy plants.

Despite the growing interest in the industry, there were concerns about it’s further developments after the most recent disaster in Japan but even despite of the economic crisis, many countries consider nuclear energy important future energy so investments keep being made into the industry (Schiermeier, 2011). There are currently 65 nuclear plants under construction, 27 of which are in China thus proving that demand and interest in nuclear energy have not dropped (Schiermeier,2011). Although some countries such as Germany where the public remains quite strongly against nuclear energy, had to switch off 7 of its oldest plants post the Japanese disaster in order to re assess their safety and they are currently closed until further notice. They have also postponed their plans of extensions to 17 nuclear reactors.

Studies have been done whether nuclear energy could be a viable substitute for global energy produced from crude oil. It has been shown that there is both sufficient uranium available to take us way beyond 2050 if nuclear energy was to become the primary global energy source as well as the fact that over 5000 nuclear power plants that would need to be built, could be build in a short period of time required as shown by previous historical data (Brook, 2012). Thus overall whilst safety and disposal of radioactive waste remain the main issues of nuclear energy, I think it has a great potential to become the future energy in the after crude oil world.

Wind Power

One of the sources of renewable energy is wind power. The energy contained within wind has been utilized by humans for thousands of years starting with transport where wind power was used to fill sails and make the ships sail and continuing with agriculture- in wind mills. Today, wind power once again, is becoming reality. Wind spins wind turbines and produces electricity, which is an alternative source to energy, which we mainly obtain from fossil fuels. Whilst wind power is not the main source of renewable energy today, the demand for it sure is growing. Figure 1 below shows where our energy came from in 2009.

 Figure 1.

Source: Renewable Energy Policy,2011. Renewable energy share of global final energy consumption and the different methods of obtaining renewable energies and their share.

Although wind power currently does not represent a significant amount of the world energy, Renewable Energy Policy Report produced in 2011 reported that the market for it is rapidly expanding and in 2011 for the first time ever recorded, the majority of new wind power capacity was added in developing countries and emerging countries such as China (Renewable Energy Policy, 2011). Prior to that, wind power is mainly used in European countries such as Denmark, UK and Spain, as well as in the USA. Wind farms are now seen both onshore and offshore and investments are made into more wind power plants. Figure 2 below shows the rise of demand and energy generated by wind power.

Figure 2.

Source: Renewable Energy Policy,2011. Wind power, existing world capacity, 1996-2010.

The video below explains how electricity is produced from wind turbines.

However whilst there certainly are advantages to obtaining energy using this method, there are also some disadvantages. Below I provide a list of advantages and disadvantages of wind power.

Advantages:

• ·      Wind turbines only use 1-10% of the wind areas which allows for farming on the surrounding land (Fthenakis, 2009)- much less land is required compared to say, biofuels production.
• ·      The turbines don’t require anything except wind power to keep them going thus no emissions are produced and they are very environmentally friendly. J
• ·      The energy used for the construction of a turbine is re generated by one turbine within 6 months.
• ·      The lifecycle of a wind turbine is 25 years thus it can produce a lot of energy in those 25 year where each turbine can support up to 1219 homes per year.
• ·      Wind turbines provide the cheapest renewable energy.
• ·      Wind turbines also do not need any special conditions and can be used everywhere in the world thus they are abundant.
• ·      Finally each wind turbine produces the same amount of energy as 16,000 solar panels hence they produce plenty of energy.
• ·      Wind farms are cheap to operate.

Disadvantages

• ·      Wind turbines rely on wind to generate power and wind does not always blow. Although wind turbines spin 70-80% of the time, this still means that they are potentially unpredictable and one cannot rely on power purely from wind turbines alone unless power is stored (Holttinen, 2006). However the current storage methods available are very expensive.
• ·      Although wind farms are cheap to operate, they are also very expensive to build so governments don’t always want to invest in them, especially when there are cheaper and easier fossil fuel alternative still available.
• ·      The location of wind farms is often derelict open spaces that are far away from city centers, where energy is required therefore long transmission lines are required to get electricity to its final destination. These are expensive and provide visual pollution.
• ·      The wind turbines themselves provide visual and noise pollution thus not all members of the public support them. For example there were major protests against the wind turbines that were installed in three mountainous passes in California- the Altamount Pass, east of San Francisco; the Tehachapi Pass, northeast of LA; and the San-Gor-gonio Pass near Palm Springs as people believed the wind turbines ruined the scenery of mountainous landscapes (Gipe, 1993).

Considering all the advantages and disadvantages of wind power, I think it is safe to say that it is all just a matter of time until wind power becomes more widely used. The main disadvantages are costs and ramblings of the public who are unwilling to accept new things in their familiar landscapes thus these disadvantages are only significant whilst the oil prices remain low making building of wind farms expensive and the public having no troubles affording their energy.