Yes, I stole the quote from Pogo.
I live in Maryland. This year Maryland passed legislation to create 8.5 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. That is, indeed, a lot of clean energy. Too much, actually. We should probably stop building wind farms as soon as we start building new nuclear energy plants. We should do both as soon as possible.
A number of Blue states like Maryland are now passing mammoth renewable energy plans. We now have the power in those states to do so. We should do a little math first. Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves handing our government over to the rising authoritarian movement.
The math is simple. I’ll use offshore wind as my example here, because, frankly, it is the most efficient of the popular renewable energy sources. The European Wind Energy Association did some analysis of OSW. Obviously, these folks are big supporters of OSW. They state proudly that their offshore wind production is 41% efficient.
Not bad. Not too bad at all.
But, not nearly good enough. This leaves us with a 59% energy gap. That is a lot of energy that has be be backed-up during lean wind times.
Wind energy production has top and bottom limits. At the top wind speeds, it is necessary to anchor the blades in place less the blade speed tears the entire unit apart. At the bottom, when the wind speed is zero, the unit will produce no energy whatsoever. At zero, this leaves us with a 59% energy gap. Most of the time, though, we will still have a 40% to 50% gap. This gap will loom larger during periods of extreme heat or cold because that is when energy is most needed.
Meanwhile, many blue states are also moving rapidly to, “Electrify everything.” Again, in moderation, this is a good idea. Currently, though, electricity, including heating, accounts for approximately 40% of U.S. energy use. As we increase the amount of energy we use in the form of electricity, we will need that much more back-up energy during the lean times.
The fossil fuel folks are counting on this. They want to supply as much of that back-up power as possible. They, and everyone else who pays attention to this knows, that the only reliable source of clean energy is nuclear. Thus, they have conspired with the renewable energy folks to simply not talk about nuclear energy as a solution.
This is not a secret conspiracy, though conspiracy it is. Each industry works to its own best advantage. Oil producers want to produce more oil. Gas producer, more gas. Wind producers, more wind, Solar, more solar, etc. Look in any major publication and you will see the energy behemoths advertising how well their (fill in the blank) coal, oil, gas, works with renewable sources.
There will be no mention of nuclear. “Out of sight, out of mind”, as they say. So, there will be no mention of nuclear energy until the costs of renewable energy drive folks on limited income to support fossil energy out of necessity. Republicans will scoop up their votes as well. Probably, this will come with a smirk and a, “We told you so,” reminder.
Thus, by opposing nuclear energy production, we are aiding and abetting the authoritarians.
Now, I am not going to go on much longer to try to explain convincingly, what will take a lot of convincing. I’ll just throw out a number of facts most climate activists are not aware of, and hope you will do your own research. Here goes.
Nuclear energy is among the safest energy. (Ahead of wind and hydro. Right up there with solar.)
Nuclear waste has never been a significant problem. (Go ahead. Look at health data on this.)
Nuclear waste can now be re-used to create upwards of ten times as much energy as was created in the older model reactors. (Really, it is closer to twenty times, but why quibble.)
New nuclear plant technologies mean that nuclear energy can be distributed very quickly and very widely. (At least one company claims they will be able to make a reactor per day starting prior to 2030. Others are looking into the factory production model, including quite a few here in the U.S.)
Nuclear energy uses less land, and less materials than any other energy source.
New nuclear energy technologies also use less water than other energy sources (this includes construction and operation) and in fact can be used to create clean water.
There is, effectively, a limitless supply of fuel for nuclear energy. Less mining will be necessary to ramp up nuclear energy production than production of any other energy source.
The bottom line here is this. Climate activists will only be effective if they start to actively support nuclear energy, especially in their own locales.