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An obituary for small modular reactors
Small modular reactors are being heavily promoted but the economics don’t stack up. The nuclear industry is heavily promoting the idea of building small modular reactors (SMRs), with near-zero prospects for new large power reactors in many countries. These reactors would have a capacity of under 300 megawatts (MW), whereas … [Continue Reading]
Financing renewables in the UK
As new technologies trying to compete with well-established technologies, renewables needed some interim help. In a new book, Renewable Energy in the UK: Past, Present and Future, I look at how that has been done. What stands out is that, whereas some countries have gone for direct aid or guaranteed … [Continue Reading]
UK’s dream is now its nuclear nightmare
Nobody knows what to do with a vast uranium and plutonium stockpile built up in the UK by reprocessing spent fuel. It is now a nuclear nightmare. Thirty years ago it seemed like a dream: now it is a nuclear nightmare. A project presented to the world in the 1990s … [Continue Reading]
100% renewables? No problems
Australian academics Mark Diesendorf and Ben Elliston have challenged the views of fellow Australian academics Brook and Bradshaw and Heard et al., who criticized studies that claim it will be possible to supply 100% of global power (renewable electricity or “RElec”) or even all global energy needs from renewables. Instead, … [Continue Reading]
UK nuclear industry has a sinking feeling
Officially the UK nuclear industry is going ahead with building a new generation of power stations. But it can’t find anyone to pay for them. The future of the UK nuclear industry looks increasingly bleak, despite the Conservative government’s continued insistence that it wants to build up to 10 new … [Continue Reading]
Winners, losers and the low-cost energy future
Some technologies win, others lose, at least in the short term. The UK tidal power industry has been taking stock after the UK government decision not to proceed with the 320 MW Swansea lagoon as it saw it as too costly. “We saw no appetite from government to think differently, … [Continue Reading]