UK advisory group urges support for renewables over nuclear

LONDON, England, March 15, 2006 (Refocus Weekly)

An aggressive expansion of renewables and energy efficiency, combined with a low-carbon innovation strategy, would allow Britain to meet its energy needs without nuclear power.

Nuclear power is not the answer to tackling climate change or security of supply, concludes all 16 commissioners of the UK Sustainable Development Commission in a response to the government’s current energy review. Based on eight new research papers, the report ‘The role of nuclear power in a low carbon economy,’ examines the benefits and drawbacks of nuclear to conclude that there is no justification for bringing forward a new nuclear power program at this time.

The SDC is the government’s principal advisory body on matters relating to sustainable development and reports to the Prime Minister and the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales.

The 2003 Energy White Paper committed the UK to a 60% cut in CO2 emissions by 2050 and contained “a bold vision for future energy supply and demand” with a strong focus on renewables, energy efficiency and greater use of combined heat and power (cogeneration). “Progress with renewables has been reasonably encouraging, and despite concerns over delays in the offshore wind sector, it is still considered possible for the UK to meet or get close to its 10% renewables target by 2010,” it notes.

“Having examined a broad range of studies that offer different scenarios of our energy future, it is clear that there is more than enough renewable resource in the UK to provide a diverse, low carbon electricity supply,” it adds. “Regardless of what we do on nuclear power, a broad range of renewables will be required, and we will need to achieve the substantial energy savings that have been identified as cost effective using currently available technologies.”

“Developing renewables’ capacity to the levels required will take time, so many models project greater use of CHP to use fossil and renewable fuels more efficiently, and the development of carbon capture & storage technologies to help bridge the gap over the next 50 or so years,” it explains.

“Even renewable technologies will lead to fossil fuels being burnt at some point in their construction due to the high levels of fossil fuel usage in almost every transport mode and industrial process, including electricity generation,” the report concedes. “Wind turbines are built of steel and fossil fuels are, therefore, consumed in their construction either directly, during manufacture, and also from petroleum usage when the parts are transported to the construction site.”

However, the fossil fuel used over the life of the turbine is ‘repaid’ in less than ten months, as turbines generate zero carbon energy. Nuclear reactors also have large up-front energy requirements during construction, but nuclear differs from many renewables in its requirement for uranium ore.

For domestic electricity supply, “nuclear may offer a hedge against high fossil fuel prices or temporary supply disruptions, but cannot offer complete security due to its reliance on imported uranium. In this regard, nuclear power is not a domestic source of electricity in the same way as renewables,” the report explains. “Evidence on portfolio theory suggests that greater diversification of supply sources tends to reduce price risk, particularly when fuel costs are zero (as in the case of most renewables) or low (as in the case of nuclear).”

“Contrary to popular perception, the increased variability (sometimes termed intermittency) of some renewable technologies does not increase the need for more firm or baseload capacity,” it adds. “A large percentage of variable renewables would increase the need for ‘balancing services’, but would not lead to the need for additional baseload capacity, as the increase in reserve requirement is met from remaining plant.”

The SDC looked at the possibility that investment in nuclear would detract from investment in renewables but, assuming new reactors would be privately financed, concluded that there was unlikely to be an economic impact, “although this did not rule out a political impact.” It is concerned that “political attention would shift and undermine efforts to increase the proportion of renewables in the energy mix, and the efforts to improve energy efficiency throughout the economy.”

“Government support for renewables and energy efficiency since the 2003 Energy White Paper has been mixed,” with the Renewables Obligation being raised to deliver 15% of green power by 2015, while progress with commercially viable, large-scale renewables such as wind and biomass co-firing has been encouraging. However, the government has done less to stimulate the market for microgeneration, and funding for this sector over the next three years is only £30 million and “unlikely to put the UK on course for mass-market penetration.”

“A single-minded focus on one large solution could lead to a significant decrease in both political and economic attention for the wide variety of smaller solutions that we will need over the long-term to move to a low carbon economy,” and the SDC is concerned that commitment to new nuclear would send “a strong signal to all energy users that the pressure for reducing individual energy demand has been lifted.” There are concerns that new investment in nuclear would reinforce reliance on a centralized grid system and could decrease the investment available to cope with higher levels of microgeneration and large-scale renewables.

“The UK’s renewable resources are some of the best in the world, and could provide all the UK’s electricity over the longer term,” it concludes. “Despite some significant developments, our current approach remains half-hearted, and the levels of public investment needed to bring forward new technologies are inadequate when compared to our international competitors.”

“It is critical that the government should now invest far more (both politically and financially) in renewables, particularly microgeneration and biomass technologies, and marine renewables and offshore wind, where the UK has a clear natural advantage,” it concludes.


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