Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, New York.

The megawattage was higher than normal, but the politics sounded familiar when Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, with Democratic politicians and antinuclear activists in tow, dropped a rhetorical bomb on the Indian Point nuclear power plant on Dec. 10.
Not only should the Nuclear Regulatory Commission deny an application to renew its license, Mr. Cuomo said, but “Indian Point should be closed, and it should be closed now.“ For those who missed the urgency, he added, “Indian Point is, in my opinion, a catastrophe waiting to happen.“
Well, an ambitious Democratic politician in these parts can never go wrong railing against Indian Point--the more apocalyptic the language, the better. But even in the kingdom where the word “no“ forever reigns supreme, closing Indian Point raises its share of vexing questions, Nytimes.com reported.
For starters: Is New York prepared to increase carbon emissions and perhaps flunk its goals under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to close Indian Point? In whose neighborhoods in Westchester or Rockland Counties is it prepared to build the power plants that would replace it? Is the possibility of more expensive and less reliable electricity an acceptable trade-off for not having to worry about Indian Point? If Indian Point poses an unacceptable risk, shouldn’t the dozens of nuclear plants in metropolitan areas around the country and the world close as well? And we’re comfortable with those carbon trade-offs too?
In the end, they come down to this: Do the forever-green, antinuke politics of the 1970s hold up in the global warming era of 2007? Think before you answer.
Nuclear power isn’t the most lovable of alternatives, and if you live in Westchester County, as I do, the specter of Indian Point is one of the constants of local discourse, like college admissions hysteria, real estate anxiety and Bill and Hillary sightings.
Indian Point’s critics say its safety record over the years has been too flawed, the population around it too large, the evacuation plans too inadequate to keep it open. You think, if they can’t get the sirens to operate, maybe there are bigger worries.
(Of course, it was New York State that sold this alleged catastrophe in the making to its current owners just six years ago, but we’ll let that pass.)
There’s plenty of hyperbole on both sides, and Entergy Nuclear, the plant’s owner, seems able to spend money like a drunken sailor to get its message out. Nuclear power’s most effective spokesman may be Patrick Moore, a founder and former member of the environmental group Greenpeace, who has been hired by the nuclear industry to promote the technology.
He says the resurgence of nuclear energy around the world--even in ultragreen countries like Finland--reflects the simple fact that nuclear power has more potential to replace and reduce carbon emissions than anything else, and that, leaving out the Model T technology of Chernobyl, its worldwide safety record remains almost impeccable.
“What drives me nuts,“ he said, “is that the environmental movement itself has become the primary obstacle to reducing fossil fuel emissions. Energy and climate are two sides of the same coin, and they’ve got it completely backward. Either you quit worrying about climate change and go on burning fossil fuels or you accept nuclear energy and get off fossil fuels. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place of their own making.“
Of course, if you factor in conservation and alternative energy, there should be other options. And maybe the biggest obstacle to nuclear power has been cost, not pesky environs. But for now, all the painless green alternatives like massive conservation, smart building, solar power, wind power, ocean waves and the rest that are supposed to allow us to do without nuclear power are still minor parts of the equation.
Peter Applebome

By 2015, the UKÕs offshore market will be twice the size of any other countryÕs offshore wind market

Britain is to launch a huge expansion of offshore wind-power with plans for thousands of turbines in the North Sea, Irish Sea and around the coast of Scotland.
John Hutton, the energy secretary, will announce plans to build enough turbines to generate nearly half Britain’s current electricity consumption. He will open the whole of Britain’s continental shelf to development, apart from areas vital for shipping and fishing, Timesonline.co.uk reported.
The scheme could see turbines so large that they would reach 850ft into the sky, nearly 100ft taller than Canary Wharf. Each would be capable of powering up to 8,000 homes.
Britain’s current range of coal, gas, nuclear and other power stations are capable of generating 75 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, but less than 0.5GW comes from wind. Planning consents have been granted for a further 3GW and the government had already made clear it wanted this raised to 8GW.
Hutton wanted to see this target raised to 33GW-worth of wind turbines installed in the seas around Britain by 2020. If energy consumption remains stable this would mean wind power could supply the electricity needs of every home in Britain.
There would still be a need to keep fossil-fuelled power stations in reserve because windless days could leave Britain with power shortages.
However, studies at Hutton’s department for business, enterprise and regulatory reform have shown that the extra cost of maintaining standby power stations would add little to bills.
Hutton said: “The UK is now the number one location for investment in offshore wind in the world and next year we will overtake Denmark as the country with the most offshore wind capacity.
“This could be a major contribution towards meeting the EU’s target of 20% of energy from renewable sources by 2020.“
Hutton made clear the scale of the plans. The “first round“ of offshore wind farms, in 2001, comprised a few small demonstration projects. The “second round“ in 2003 limited development to the Thames estuary, the Greater Wash and the northwest.
Under the new proposals, the whole of Britain’s continental shelf would be opened to development, potentially including the English Channel and much of the coast of northern Scotland, where winds are most reliable.
It could mean that wind farms would become visible from almost every point of Britain’s coast. Some developers have made clear that they would like to see a forest of turbines stretching up the North Sea, whose shallow waters make it relatively cheap and easy to develop.
Hutton’s plan would be subject to an environmental assessment but it is certain to amplify the conflicts over wind farms.
So far there have been few objections to Britain’s six offshore wind farms because they are largely out of sight.
However, the scale of the proposed offshore developments is certain to bring controversy as they will often be visible from land.
Maria McCaffery, chief executive of the British Wind Energy Association, welcomed the move. “This expansion will mean that by 2015 the UK’s offshore market will be twice the size of any other national offshore wind market.“
Conventional methods of generating electricity (fossil fuelled), rely heavily on cost effectiveness based on a high output per generator over its working life.
Bearing in mind it would be necessary to have conventional capacity in reserve at least equal to that produced by any wind energy scheme of significant size, then the downtime of the reserve would apparently nullify the economic benefits of any gains from said scheme.

In less than a decade since the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, renewable energy has evolved rapidly from an ’alternative’ source of energy to a mainstream energy option, according to REN21 (the Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century) Renewables Global Status Report 2007.
According to Enn.com, compared to a total global power capacity of 4,300 GW, the report finds renewable energy (without large hydro) now provides about 240 Gigawatts (GW) of clean power, avoiding some 5 gigatonnes per year (Gt/year) of carbon emissions.
“What’s needed now are binding targets in an international agreement to establish polices that can rapidly accelerate the large-scale deployment of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels,“ said Mohamed El Ashry, head of the REN21, that produced the report with the Worldwatch Institute.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which houses the REN21 secretariat, said “Renewable energy can make a significant contribution to decarbonizing the global economy and its contribution to combating climate change is now really beginning to emerge.“
“I call on governments to send market signals that will accelerate the use of renewable energy even further and to also reverse the declines in research and development spending so as to accelerate the commercialization of other renewables waiting in the wings,“ he said
The new report follows two earlier Global Status Reports in 2005 and 2006, and shows that renewable energy sources continue their strong double-digit growth in 2007.
- Wind energy has the largest share of renewable energy investment and continues to grow at 25-30 percent per year to reach more than 90 GW cumulative capacity in 2007 11 times the capacity in 1997.
- Grid-tied electricity from solar photovoltaic technology (solar PV) continues to grow at 50-60 percent annual rates, and now accounts for almost 8 GW.
- Solar hot water systems now provide hot water to more than 50 million households worldwide and 25 million rural households benefit from biogas, small wind power, household solar power, and other technologies.
“With more than 70 countries installing wind power and biomass power generation expanding in more than 40 countries, renewable energy is clearly a global sector“, said El Ashry, adding “growth is being driven by policies to promote renewable energy, which have mushroomed over the past few years.“
More than 50 countries worldwide have adopted targets for future shares or amounts of renewable energy, including 13 developing countries, all EU countries, and many states/provinces in the US and Canada. At least 56 countries now have some type of renewable energy promotion policy, and 44 countries, states, and provinces have enacted renewable-portfolio-standards requiring future shares of power generation.
Pointing to an earlier report this year by the UNEP Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative (SEFI), El Ashry said “the $100 billion of global investment in the sector during 2006 is a vote of confidence by investors.“
Virginia Sonntag-O’Brien from UNEP SEFI said that as the numbers for renewable energy continue to escalate, there seems to be “a disconnect between the markets and policymakers and negotiators“.
“In terms of options to mitigate carbon emissions, renewable energy is here now, unlike other options. There is no such thing as ’clean coal’ today, and it is likely to be more than a decade before any advanced technology to capture and store carbon can be widely deployed“ she said.
The 2007 Renewables Global Status Report concludes that current trends are set to continue as the costs of renewable energy technologies decline and the sector continues to diversify production and technology development to a broad base of countries, including emerging economies. With more than 2.5 million jobs in the renewable energy industry and strong rural development benefits, renewable energy is an avenue to economic development, energy security, local environmental benefits, and climate change mitigation.