Goodbye Nuclear Power – Hello Solar Power and Wind Energy

[kristopher]

Goodbye Nuclear Power – Hello Solar Power and Wind Energy
november 09, 2011

The prospect of a probable reduction in nuclear energy in France presents a fantastic opportunity for the photovoltaic solar energy industry.

It is a commitment which could appear timid, or even somewhat feeble at a time when some of our neighbors have already declared, "It's over," "Basta to the atom," "Stop nuclear." This commitment is that made by the Socialist presidential candidate, François Hollande. "We need to reduce the amount of nuclear power in our electricity generation. , I will strive towards achieving, by 2025, a reduction in nuclear from 75% to 50%," said this supreme office candidate.

Indeed, it is little, compared to other countries that have decided to forgo nuclear in the near future. Plain and simple. As Germany has done; as Belgium wishes to do so. But for one country, France, where nuclear produces more than 78% of electricity, this is a huge step. And even more so due to the policies that have been in place for the last forty years. For Francois Hollande, therefore, rather than debate the relinquishment of nuclear by 2040 or 2050, it is better to make a "firm, clear-cut commitment for the coming fifteen years."

"It's a common sense proposal,"says Thierry Lepercq, President of Solairedirect, a company involved in development and financing for solar plants. No one is disputing the importance for France of implementing a more balanced and safe energy mix." And especially since the Fukushima disaster. This hypothesis of a reduction in nuclear has up until now been ideological, for the most part – but has now also become economic.

Continuing along the nuclear path may prove costly...

http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=14572

[sam11111]

1. "all uranium back in the ground" is the best idea

[bananas]

2. This had at least 4 net recommendations

and I think it actually had 5 net recommendations when I recommended it myself.
Now it's down to zero.
Anti-science pro-nukes are hard at work.

[kristopher]

10. I wonder what they'll do when DU does away with the unrec function?

They are desperate to keep valid knowledge from people. There are several reasons why would someone want to do that and all of them are unsavory.

[diane in sf]

12. I hope that day comes soon, but you know they'll be rating up all their pro-nuke articles

The paid pro-nuke monkeys are all over E/E, but don't read any other part of DU. So they consistently overlook pro-renewable articles that end up in other parts of DU, which often get many recommendations.

[kristopher]

14. They've been promising to get rid of it for a long time...

...the latest I heard was by the end of the year.

[bananas]

3. The original source for that article ...

I took a few minutes to hunt down the original source for that article:
http://www.thesolarfuture.fr/news/2011/11/8/goodbye-nuclear-hello-solar.html

[kristopher]

11. Thanks. I'm afraid I tend to be a bit partial to REVE

I'm afraid I tend to be a bit partial to REVE as they tend to do a fair job of separating the wheat from the chaff. But it is good to backtrack to the source

http://www.evwind.es/index.php

They are a Spanish wind industry/EU governmental entity with an interesting goal:

REVE Project aims and scope
The REVE project aims to perform a study thoroughly assessing the key technical challenges and the most relevant economic aspects in order to create a network infrastructure so that electric cars may act as energy storing facilities in the electric network while they are not circulating, thus contributing to an improvement of the load factor of the electric system as a whole.

This project will inspect in detail how the suggested infrastructure is going to impact on the wind energy release guarantee. In order to do that, the increase of wind energy generation according to the growth of installable wind energy and the foreseeable evolution of the generation will be taken into account.

The starting point of the project is electricity storage during low demand periods (off-peak hours), when potential decreases in wind energy production in wind farms might take place...
http://www.evwind.es/contenidos.php?id_cont=12

[bananas]

4. France is aiming for 23% renewables by 2020

France is aiming for 23% renewables by 2020
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x299879

[bananas]

5. IEA chief: nuclear power will drop to 10% of global electricity by 2035 (currently 14%)

IEA chief: nuclear power will drop to 10% of global electricity by 2035 (currently 14%)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x304681

[bananas]

6. France to rebalance its energy mix in favour of renewables

France to rebalance its energy mix in favour of renewables
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x303968

[bananas]

7. France's environment minister says nuclear will shrink as a proportion of the French energy mix

France's environment minister says nuclear will shrink as a proportion of the French energy mix
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x160224

[bananas]

8. France Seeks to Expand Wind Power

France Seeks to Expand Wind Power
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4915170

[madokie]

9. If it wasn't the stupidest thing man has ever done it was a close second

Personally I can't remember ever thinking that anything else came close. Nuclear has its place but boiling water to make steam is not one of them, never was never will be. The French have been loosing, using that word loosely too, some of their waste out in the ocean for years and I'm sure that is weighing pretty heavily on some shoulders about right now.

[Nederland]

13. I think all the nuclear waste dumped into the oceans recently

has been medical, not reactor waste. I think I read that here in fact....

[bananas]

15. No, in addition to the illegal dumping, there's also...

http://healutah.org/nuclearutah/energy/france

...the La Hague plant uses a pipeline to discharge hundreds of millions of liters of liquid radioactive waste into the English Channel each year, polluting the oceans all the way to the Arctic. This egregious pollution continues on the basis of a disingenuous renaming of liquid waste as "discharges." If the same waste were put into 55- gallon drums and dumped overboard from a ship, it would be illegal under the 1970 London Dumping Convention. But somehow the "discharges" are permitted. Twelve of the fifteen governmental parties to the Oslo-Paris agreement have asked France and Britain, which has two reprocessing plants in Northwestern England, to stop these discharges, to no avail. It is a weak treaty - the abstaining parties, Britain and France, are not required to comply.

[madokie]

17. I think you read that here but if you would do a search you will find that what you read here

saying that it was all medical waste is nothing but DU bullshit propagated by the pro-nuke crowd. Don't take my word for it get off your arse and do some research for yourself. Otherwise what you said is only more of the same bull that is pushed around here as fact

[kristopher]

18. Is this medical waste?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=311896&mesg_id=311896

Scotland's Plutonium Beach?

[bananas]

16. Like a lot of bad ideas, it probably seemed like a good idea at the time. nt