In a spirited overview of nuclear prospects, Prof. Steve Thomas from Greenwich University says that ‘despite a major public relations push in the media and with policymakers for new nuclear, the anticipated nuclear revival will not happen because of the fundamentals of the technology in terms of cost, construction time, and reliability. Commercial financiers will remain very reluctant to fund these projects if any of the risk falls on them. Nuclear projects also take far too long before a return on investment can begin to be earned, typically more than 15 years from investment decision to first power’. Small modular Reactors (SMRs) are sometimes seen as the way ahead, but Arnie Gundersen , a former nuclear industry executive with 50 years of experience managing 70 nuclear projects says ‘Despite all the headlines and billions in taxpayer subsidies, an SMR will never be built—not in time to matter, and not at a price that makes sense’. He adds ‘I once b...
Wind power has been doing well in the UK, especially offshore. But there are issues. The variability of renewable energy sources like wind and solar is not their only problem- pushing the full system costs of energy up, as I discussed in my last post. There are also curtailment costs incurred when local potential green power supply exceeds what can be delivered to consumers. For example, last year, SSE earned nearly £10 million in ‘constraint’ payments for unused wind power generated in Scotland, the vast majority from its Viking on-shore 103 turbine wind farm. It is not alone. For example, a Feature article in the Times (Jan 10th) noted that SSE’s Seagreen offshore wind farm off the East coast of Scotland has been paid to curtail output from it 114 turbines for 63% of the time. In all, the Times report noted, curtailment cost consumers £1.5 bn last year and it said the fundamental problem was the ‘lack of cables’ to users- with wind farms mostly bein...