Analysis: ‘Why wind & solar are the energy past, not future’ – ‘Fossil fuels are the energy present, & nuclear power is likely the energy future’
Via Energy Bad Boys – By Isaac Orr and Mitch Rolling: It might come as a shock to lawmakers like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but nearly all the energy used by humans until a few hundred years ago was renewable, and life was not a utopian heaven on Earth. The graph nearby shows the amount of energy used by humans from 1800 through the present. In 1800, humanity used 452 times less energy than humans in 2019, and nearly all of it came from biomass. The “Low Energy” world humans lived in was no paradise. Average life expectancies were less than 40 years. In Germany, every second child died. People’s statures were shorter because poor nutrition and illness limited human growth. Life was indeed nasty, brutish, and short, and it remained this way until humans began using coal at scale in the 1800s.
Wind as an energy source had first been used for sailboats in Mesopotamia. Until the first windmills were invented by the Persians to grind grain and pump water between 500 and 900 A.D., wind energy was primarily used for transportation. Windmills became widespread in Europe in the 17th century, and approximately 200,000 windmills operated at the peak of the technology. Of course, the disadvantages of wind we experience today were still present back then. Because wind power cannot be stored, it was used primarily to mill grain into flour, pump water into livestock tanks, and saw lumber into boards.
In fact, because wind energy was dependent on the weather and wasn’t reliable, horses were used as “backup” sources of power for milling grain during calm stretches in Europe, similar to how natural gas power plants “back up” wind turbines for generating electricity when the wind isn’t blowing on modern electricity grids. …
While each of the “renewable” energy sources above increased the human standard of living, they also had limited availability and reliability. It was the discovery and widespread use of coal that enabled humans to access vast supplies of reliable energy on demand and perform more work than ever before dreamed. This energy powered the industrial revolution.
The widespread use of oil for lighting was short-lived, however, because, in 1882, Thomas Edison built his first commercial electricity plant, ushering in the era of electricity. When it comes to energy, nothing is as powerful, versatile, safe, easy to use, or clean as electricity. …
Unlike other forms of energy, electricity is not a primary source of energy by itself. Instead, electricity is a secondary source of energy that must be generated by converting primary energy sources (such as coal, natural gas, oil, uranium, water, solar, or wind energy) into electric power.
Wind and solar don’t produce much power because they are unreliable and the exact opposite of energy-dense, requiring vast buildouts to produce only a small amount of electricity. As a result, they have an exceedingly low energy return on investment (EROI). …
In fact, if all the electricity you used for 70 years was generated at nuclear facilities, the amount of uranium used would fit inside a soda can. The high energy density of uranium is why nuclear power has the potential to someday generate electricity at a lower cost than fossil fuels and is why it is most likely the future of electricity generation. Unlike wind and solar, it produces carbon-dioxide-free electricity around the clock, so a grid powered by nuclear power won’t experience California-style blackouts.
Big Tech Goes Nuclear
Big Tech Goes Nuclear After many years of big tech companies in Silicon Valley drinking the kool-aid of the climate change apocalypse, they are now suddenly waking up to two unavoidable realities. First, the next generation of tech products will require much more energy to produce. And second, wind and solar aren’t scalable to come […]
SIERRA CLUB GOES NUCLEAR! RENEWABLES NOT ENOUGH FOR AI, WE NEED NUCLEAR POWER – Quietly reverses 50 years of antinuclear advocacy
SIERRA CLUB: RENEWABLES NOT ENOUGH FOR AI, WE NEED NUCLEAR Sierra Club last month quietly reversed 50 years of antinuclear advocacy to endorse nuclear energy as a clean source of power. In their new electricity policy report, they call for using nuclear to protect the climate. pic.twitter.com/EyxzwAoY02 — Mark Nelson (@energybants) October 16, 2024
Three Mile Island nuclear plant is reopening & will ‘exclusively sell the power’ to Microsoft ‘to fuel its AI ambitions’ – ‘Deal is enabled by Biden’s IRA climate bill, which contains billions in tax credits’
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/20/energy/three-mile-island-microsoft-ai/index.html By Jordan Valinsky, CNN New YorkCNN — Three Mile Island, the site of worst nuclear disaster in the United States, is reopening and will exclusively sell the power to Microsoft as the company searches for energy sources to fuel its AI ambitions. Constellation Energy announced Friday that its Unit 1 reactor, which closed five years ago, is […]
AI May Bring Back Three Mile Island: Microsoft plans to reopen the 1979 disaster site. Proliferating data centers need even more energy.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/artificial-intelligence-may-bring-back-three-mile-island-microsoft-data-center-energy-c125eef3?utm_campaign=L%3AP%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=327569329&utm_content=327569329&utm_source=hs_email By Mark P. Mills The news that Microsoft plans to fund the reopening of the undamaged reactor at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant spread almost as quickly as news about the nuclear accident at that same site in 1979. Microsoft’s decision was animated, as the Journal reported, by the “gargantuan amount of power needed for data […]
Three Mile Island is reopening & selling its power ‘exclusively’ to Microsoft to power its ‘AI ambitions’ – ‘Deal is enabled by Biden’s climate bill, which contains billions in tax credits’
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/20/energy/three-mile-island-microsoft-ai/index.html By Jordan Valinsky, CNN CNN — Three Mile Island, the site of worst nuclear disaster in the United States, is reopening and will exclusively sell the power to Microsoft as the company searches for energy sources to fuel its AI ambitions. Constellation Energy announced Friday that its Unit 1 reactor, which closed five years ago, is expected […]
Tennessee leads the way toward a U.S. nuclear revival
https://www.cfact.org/2024/09/16/tennessee-leads-the-way-toward-a-u-s-nuclear-revival/ By Duggan Flanakin On September 3, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and the city of Oak Ridge, birthplace of the U.S. nuclear energy industry, announced new details about “Project IKE,” a new nuclear energy development boosted by the new Tennessee Nuclear Energy Fund. Paris-based Orano USA has agreed to build a uranium enrichment centrifuge facility on the […]
UK Guardian: A nuclear plant’s closure was hailed as a green win. Then emissions went up – ‘Shuttering of facility raises awkward climate crisis’
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/20/nuclear-plant-closure-carbon-emissions-new-york When New York’s deteriorating and unloved Indian Point nuclear plant finally shuttered in 2021, its demise was met with delight from environmentalists who had long demanded it be scrapped. But there has been a sting in the tail – since the closure, New York’s greenhouse gas emissions have gone up. Castigated for its impact […]
The Idiocene Continues! Spain confirms nuclear power phase-out, extends renewable projects deadlines
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/spain-confirms-nuclear-power-phase-out-extends-renewable-projects-deadlines-2023-12-27/ MADRID, Dec 27 (Reuters) – Spain on Wednesday confirmed plans to close the country’s nuclear plants by 2035 as it presented energy measures including extended deadlines for renewable projects and adjusted renewable auctions. The management of radioactive waste and dismantling of the plants, whose shut down will begin in 2027, will cost about 20.2 […]
The New Face of Nuclear Energy Is Miss America: The soon to be nuclear fuels engineer is trying to help the industry recapture public support
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/the-new-face-of-nuclear-energy-is-miss-america-c17b35a6?reflink=integratedwebview_share By Jennifer Hiller Does the U.S. need more nuclear power? Miss America thinks so. So do Oliver Stone, Elon Musk and Sam Altman. Atomic energy is elbowing its way back into the conversation about future energy supplies, with backers in the Biden administration and oil and gas industries alike. It has also re-entered the American zeitgeist thanks to movies, billionaire backers and […]