Despite Germany and Denmark’s forward-looking policies in regards to power generation, France is one of the speed-bumps (or should I say speed-beurmp?) in Europe developing comprehensive solar-power policies. France has always been fiercely proud of its nuclear program, not surprising for the country that discovered radiation (and cancer). France’s power generation network is run by EDF (Electricity of France), a formerly government-owned corporation. EDF is the world’s second largest utility company, and the world’s largest electricity producer, producing 22 percent of the EU’s electricity, primarily from nuclear power that accounts for some 75 percent of its output. This is in part due to France’s poor natural resources. As the French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy declared in 2004, “We do not have oil, we do not have gas, we do not have coal, but we had ideas”.
Image Source: Guardian UK
A shame the ideas Sarkozy was promoting relied on potentially dangerous technology that often overruns its 40-year lifespan. Many reactors in use nowadays were built as long ago as the 1950s and 1960s, and those reactors were due to only last until the late 1990s, with lobbyists pushing governments to extend their licenses by decades and persuading those same government officials to ignore shoddy safety records and poor manufacturing. Fukushima being the most recent example of how a disaster at one of these reactors can play out. There have also been minor incidents at locations such as (the frequently troubled) Windscale-Sellafield in the UK (with one leak not being detected for several months due to a ‘complacent culture’ at the plants), Paks in Hungary and Braidwood, IL and Erwin, TN. Erwin’s plant was shut down for seven months, and a required public hearing on the licensing of the plant wasn’t held due to the absence of public notification.
As any fool knows, nuclear reactor cores emit tons of stray neutrons that cause molecular changes in the materials around them. Most importantly steel and concrete. The materials harden and become brittle, increasing the possibility of cracks.
With a change in French politics, though, there may be a planned partial nuclear phaseout of the 24 oldest reactors by 2025 starting with Fessenheim. Also, France has recently announced plans to start building the first of five offshore wind farms, to produce a total of 6 GW of power and increase output from 50 MW of solar power by 500 MW. This only accounts for less than 1 percent of EDF’s output. The company’s 59 nuclear reactors in France currently produce 400 TWh in comparison.
EDF operates in the UK as EDF Energy and provides gas and electricity to some six million consumers throughout Southern England as one of the largest distributor and generators in the UK. In 2004, EDF Energy spent virtually nothing on renewable energy according to The Ecologist magazine (note: paywalled for subscribers). Since then, EDF’s renewable initiatives have been slow to develop, despite numerous greenwashing campaigns to encourage consumers to be environmentally aware to distract from the fact that consumers account for less than 10 percent of the nation’s energy consumption and EDF Energy owning and running two coal-fired power stations, offsetting its carbon emissions with greater reliance on nuclear power.
Britain’s energy policy hews closely to the French model, partly due to the heavy reliance on EDF Energy and other private companies. As the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s website puts it, “the UK has been blessed with a wealth of energy resources”, including some of the best wind, tide and wave resources in Europe. (The Severn Bore is the second most powerful wave bore on Earth after the Bay of Fundy.) Back in 2010, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said that, “one of the biggest British scandals is that despite the UK having superb renewable energy potential and the know-how to exploit it, we are one of the worst-performing countries when it comes to harnessing it.” Renewable sources of energy only comprised less than 10 percent of the UK’s power supply, rising from less than 2 percent in 2007.
With the UK’s energy production in private hands since the early 1990s, there has been little political momentum from the government to push for a more rigorous green energy policy, especially regarding industry and the private markets. In fact, the UK’s energy policy has been to seemingly expend as little energy as possible, especially in the green markets.
It’s not all doom and gloom from the UK, however. London’s new Blackfriars rail station is following Belgium’s pattern, with 4,400 panels on its roof producing 1 Mw, providing half of the station’s power from solar power alone. However, Britain lags behind most of its European neighbours, with a paltry 750 MWp – less than half of Belgium’s. In 2008, though, Britain iplemented a FiT (Feed-in Tariff) similar to Germany’s, allowing homeowners to generate power into the national grid and be paid for the surplus, but it still lags far behind.
Image Source: e8 / GlobalElectricity.org
Tuvalu, a former member of the British Commonwealth, and the fourth smallest country in the world, announced in 2008 its entire energy production will be from renewable resources alone by 2020. This is a series of islands no more than 4.5 meters above sea level, with dwindling fresh water reserves, who are being impacted by Global Climate Change the greatest. So much so, Tuvalu sued the Bush administration for failing to take action against climate change.
Even Russia accounts for 68 percent of its energy from renewable hydroelectric and geothermal power, dating back to massive dams and public works built in the Soviet era, a massive 179 TWh. Its first windmill, built in 1941 was producing 100 KW. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has returned to a more aggressive renewable energy policy since 2008, cutting energy consumption by 40 percent by 2020.
China leads the world in renewable energy or, as it quaintly and hawkishly refers to it, “energy security.” Seventeen percent of China’s energy comes from renewable resources, primarily hydroelectric power, and the remainder of all of China’s power could be generated by wind power alone by 2030. However, China has recently announced a stepping up of power generated from nuclear, water, and shale gas. The last led by the developing American market since the start of the century and a global market worth in excess of $25 billion. A lot more money than renewable energy.
So, why is the rest of the world so much more invested in renewable energy than America? Find out in part two that goes up tomorrow.
Helt fantastisk!