Without nuclear, the battle against global warming is as good as lost

A madness is taking hold. In the same week as Arctic ice cover is recorded at its lowest ever extent, two major countries decide to reduce or eliminate their use of the only proven source of low-carbon power that can be deployed at sufficient scale to tackle our climate crisis.

Japan plans to phase out nuclear entirely by 2030, its prime minister announced today. The French president has just revealed a plan to dramatically reduce the country's reliance on nuclear, which currently gives France some of the cleanest electricity in the world.

Let me be very clear. Without nuclear, the battle against global warming is as good as lost. Even many greens now admit this in private moments. We are already witnessing the first signs of the collapse in the biosphere this entails – with the Arctic in full-scale meltdown, more solar radiation is being captured by the dark ocean surface, and the weather systems of the entire northern hemisphere are being thrown into chaos. With nuclear, there is a chance that global warming this century can be limited to 2C; without nuclear, I would guess we are heading for 4C or above. That will devastate ecosystems and societies worldwide on a scale which is unimaginable.

Given the trauma the Japanese people have suffered since the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011, it is understandable that major questions are asked of domestic politicians. But we must never forget that Fukushima has killed no one. More people in Japan recently died from an E coli outbreak due to eating contaminated pickles. Scientists also agree there will never be an observable cancer increase in the Japanese population attributable to Fukushima.

But in response to the nuclear shutdown, oil and gas imports to Japan have doubled, and carbon dioxide emissions soared by more than 60m tonnes. Any environmentalist who celebrates this outcome is not worthy of the name.

Japan is already backing away from its own climate change targets. As a participant in the UN climate negotiations last year, I watched this happen. Under the 2009 Copenhagen accord, Japan pledged to reduce CO2 emissions by 25% by 2020. The plan was to increase nuclear to half of national electricity in order to facilitate the carbon cuts, supported by an increase in renewables to 20% by 2030. To reach the same targets without nuclear is impossible; wind and solar combined meet barely 1% of electricity production today in Japan, and there is no way they can be deployed at sufficient scale to meet the gap. So the climate targets will be dropped, as Japan re-carbonises its economy.

It is nothing short of insane that politicians around the world, under pressure from populations subjected to decades of anti-nuclear fearmongering by people who call themselves greens, are raising our collective risk of catastrophic climate change in order to eliminate the safest power source ever invented. More

 

Summer Academy 'Energy Transition' July 21-27 Berlin, Germany

Just a few places left! Summer Academy 'Energy Transition' July 21-27 Berlin, Germany

Dear colleagues, partners and other interested parties,


(More info and details on www.summeracademy2012.com)

There are only a few places left to attend the 9th edition of the annual international Summer Academy 'Energy and the Environment'. Climate change and energy use are inextricably linked. Energy consumption is the source of the emissions that cause climate change. Climate change, in turn, is the major drive behind the development of renewable energy sources (RES) and clean technologies. Due to this interdependent relationship, effectively mitigating climate change is impossible without a matching, ambitious energy policy. In fact, major climate protection policies (the Kyoto protocol for instance) are primarily geared towards reducing energy emissions and replacing traditional energy sources with sustainable alternatives. The recently released IPCC report on the potential of RES found that: ‘With consistent climate and energy policy support, renewable energy sources can contribute substantially to human well-being by sustainably supplying energy and stabilizing the climate’.

The Summer Academy 2012 is therefore dedicated to the integration and expansion of RES as an answer to climate change, and will focus on the challenges surrounding the evolution of energy supply, moving from a traditional, fossil-fuel based energy system to one based on renewable sources. Researchers and professionals alike will gain access to the latest information and interdisciplinary findings on policy issues, economic hurdles and legal frameworks pertinent to the integration of renewables and to energy efficiency, and ultimately the mitigation of climate change.This year, the event will focus on ‘Energy Transition: Expansion and Integration of Renewable Energy Sources’ and will take place in Germany, the world's renewable energy giant.

Program 2012

From July 21-27, the Academy will examine the challenges surrounding renewable energy integration from a different disciplinary angle. The Academy will commence on the 21st of July in Greifswald, where participants will learn about the exclusive regional research on nuclear fusion, infrastructure such as Nord Stream and the world’s first zero-emissions University in the context of white beaches at the Baltic.

On Monday the 23rd, the Academy will move to Berlin. In IKEM’s luxurious conference facilities, the agenda will commence with an in-depth understanding of the current global energy landscape and the forces that shape it. Key-note speaker of the day is Dr. Klaus Müschen, head of Department Climate Protection and Energy’ at the German Federal Environment Agency.
Keywords: Global energy landscape, Germany's 100% renewable strategy, RES and the financial crisis, developing and industrializing countries.

Tuesday the 24th will examine the legal and policy challenges and success stories related to renewable energy integration. Legal experts from Germany’s leading energy law firm Becker Büttner Held will meet with industry leaders to discuss the intents and practical implications of legal instruments and energy policy. Renowned think tanks will provide an objective foundation basis for these discussions.
Keywords: Post-Kyoto, nuclear energy in Germany, EU policy design, drivers and instruments,'eclipse' in the German solar sector, Germany's reformed EEG (Renewable Energy Law).

Wednesday the 25th pays heed to innovative technologies that have the potential to considerably fasten our transition to a sustainable energy model, ranging from intelligent grids designed by E-Energy (a new major funding project initiated by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in which Germany, Austria and Switzerland join forces in research and development projects geared toward the creation of ICT-based energy systems of the future) to the potential and harvesting of wave and tidal energy in the context of the Guernsey Islands.
Keywords: Wave and tidal energy, energy efficiency, virtual and hybrid power plants, digital networking and optimization of the energy supply system (e-energy), and sustainability in the transport sector.

Thursday focuses on network challenges. The various success stories and problems related to RES integration in the grid across the European Union will be discussed, and the vision of a European-wide supergrid will be addressed by the Renewable Grid Initiative (European Climate Foundation).
Keywords: RES integration in the grid across the EU: success and obstacles inventory (technological, economic, social), grid stabilisation through storage (power-to-gas), super grids

Friday the 27th will put all acquired knowledge into practice in the context of RES in the Baltic Sea Region. Current Presidency of the region’s main energy cooperation structure BASREC is held by Germany. They will share their vision and outlook on the region’s energy landscape, after which the event will shine the spotlight on off-shore. Lessons from the North Sea will also be applied by industry experts from TenneT and legal experts from Bond Pearce. Finally, a close-up on cross-border grid interconnection (former Krieger’s Flak) and energy storage (power-to-gas) will mark the ending of the conferences of the Academy. In the evening, participants and teaching faculty are invited to meet and mingle in the convivial context of a barbecue in one of Berlin’s old farmhouses in the neighborhood Neukölln.
Keywords: Regional cooperation and RES, business potential and regional development, diversity of regional legal instruments, off shore construction, legal and regulatory challenges, power-to-gas in the Baltic sea, cross border grid cooperation. And barbecue!

This event is a must for professionals and researchers in the field of energy and climate protection.

Interested? Detailed program, application form and brochure available on
www.summeracademy2012.com

Participation fee
(includes all accommodation, travel from Greifswald to Berlin, the welcome dinner, daily breakfast and lunch and the good bye barbecue on Friday)

Standard fee: € 1900

Reduced fee:
PhD students/University researchers: € 900
Governments/NGO’s/think tanks: € 1200

Please send in your application by the 10th of July. We look forward to hearing from you!

Prof. Michael Rodi
Director of IKEM

And

Anika Nicolaas Ponder
Event manager at IKEM

IKEM - Institute for Climate Protection, Energy and Mobility
Magazinstraße 15-16
D-10179 Berlin

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Fukushima Meltdown Hastens Decline of Nuclear Power

On May 5, 2012, Japan shut down its Tomari 3 nuclear reactor on the northern island of Hokkaido for inspection, marking the first time in over 40 years that the country had not a single nuclear power plant generating electricity.

The March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown shattered public confidence in atomic energy, thus far making it politically impossible to restart any of the reactors taken offline. And the disaster’s legacy has spread far beyond Japan. Some European countries have decided to phase out their nuclear programs entirely. In other countries, nuclear plans are proceeding with caution. But with the world’s fleet of reactors aging, and with new plants suffering construction delays and cost increases, it is possible that world nuclear electricity generation has peaked and begun a long-term decline.

Prior to the Fukushima crisis, Japan had 54 reactors providing close to 30 percent of its electricity, with plans to increase this share to more than 50 percent by 2030. But nuclear power dropped to just 18 percent of Japan’s electricity over the course of 2011. When the quake and tsunami hit, 16 reactors had already been temporarily shut down for inspections or maintenance; another 13 underwent emergency shutoffs, including the four Fukushima Daiichi reactors now permanently shut down. Others were subsequently closed due to earthquake vulnerability or for regular inspection. Now that Tomari 3 is offline, all 44,200 megawatts of Japan’s nuclear capacity that are listed as “operational” by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are in fact idle with no set date for restart.

Next to Japan, the most dramatic shift in nuclear energy policy following Fukushima occurred in Germany. Within days of the disaster, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany’s seven oldest reactors, all built before 1980, would shut down immediately. And in May 2011, the government declared that Germany would phase out nuclear entirely by 2022. Nuclear power generated 18 percent of the country’s electricity in 2011, down from 24 percent in recent years and well below the peak in 1997 of 31 percent.

Just before Germany’s phaseout decision, Switzerland abandoned plans for three new reactors that were going through the approval process. The government also announced that all five of the country’s reactors—which for years had provided some 40 percent of its electricity—will close permanently as their operating licenses expire over the next 22 years. Italy, which had discontinued its nuclear program after the infamous 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine, had in 2010 decided to restart it. But in a June 2011 referendum, more than 90 percent of Italian voters chose to ban nuclear power. Later in 2011, Belgium announced plans to phase out the seven reactors that provide more than half of the country’s electricity. Even in France, with a world-leading 77 percent of its electricity coming from nuclear power, newly elected President François Hollande has said he intends to reduce this share to roughly 50 percent by 2025.

According to IAEA data, 13 reactors with a combined 11,400 megawatts were permanently shut down in Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom in 2011. Seven new reactors totaling 4,000 megawatts were connected to the grid—three in China and one each in India, Iran, Pakistan, and Russia—with less than 1,000 megawatts added through increasing, or “uprating,” existing nuclear plant capacities. As of May 2012, after two new reactor connections in South Korea and two permanent U.K. shutdowns, the world’s 435 operational nuclear reactors total 370,000 megawatts of capacity. Actual nuclear electricity generation in 2011 fell to 2,520 terawatt-hours, 5 percent below the 2006 peak. More

 

Germany's $263 Billion Renewables Shift

Not since the allies leveled Germany in World War II has Europe’s biggest economy undertaken a reconstruction of its energy market on this scale.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to build offshore wind farms that will cover an area six times the size of New York City and erect power lines that could stretch from London to Baghdad. The program will cost 200 billion euros ($263 billion), about 8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2011, according to the DIW economic institute in Berlin.

Germany aims to replace 17 nuclear reactors that supplied about a fifth of its electricity with renewables such as solar and wind. Merkel to succeed must experiment with untested systems and policies and overcome technical hurdles threatening the project, said Stephan Reimelt, chief executive officer of General Electric Co. (GE)’s energy unit in the country.

Utilities running gas-generating plants in Germany lost 10.92 euros a megawatt-hour today at 12:16 p.m. local time, based on so-called clean-spark spreads for the next month that take account of gas, power and emissions prices. That compared with a profit of 20.95 euros in October 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. U.K. generators earned 2.06 pounds ($3.27), down from a profit of 7.02 pounds in October.

“Germany is like a big energy laboratory,” Reimelt said in an interview. “The country has a political and societal consensus to drop nuclear power but lacks a clear technological solution.”

Already, the program is expanding markets for Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP), the world’s biggest solar panel maker, and Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS)., the largest maker of wind turbines. It’s hurting utilities from RWE AG (RWE) to EON AG (EOAN), which have stepped up cost-cutting to curb losses from closing nuclear stations early. More