I’m a big fan of your work.
This reply actually concerns your October newsletter. And the topic of coal. Or rather coal vs nuclear in China. I mean, I get it that democracies have voted against nuclear, mostly. But in a totalitarian regime like China, is there a report / article you’d recommend that explains why China is not transitioning more “energetically” from coal to nuclear? (China is building nuclear reactors, true, but compared to what they have built in the last 20 years, it seems the pace is slow).
(On a side note, at the risk of repeating what others may have reported, the legend of Figure 2 states “Figure 1”; on page 4, the text states “green line in Figure 2”, whereas Figure 4 is meant, isn’t it?).
Thanks again Art,
Looking forward to reading more from you,
Owen.
Art, you state in the Wealthion podcast posted on YouTube on Oct 13 (from time interval 0:39:01):
“And until we figure out a way to store electric power, which we’re a long way from, at least on any kind of commercial scale – I mean the hard truth is, is that renewable energy is not ready for prime time.”
Evidence I see indicates on- and off-river pumped hydro are already proven “commercial scale” technologies for reliable multi-day energy storage capacity, and planet Earth apparently has many potential sites available. I’d suggest utility-scale batteries have recently demonstrated they are rapid-response “commercial scale” technologies for multi-hour storage capacity.
Per the scientific paper titled A review of pumped hydro energy storage, by Andrew Blakers et. al., published Mar 25:
Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) comprises about 96% of global storage power capacity and 99% of global storage energy volume.
The RE100 Group ANU has found about 616,000 potentially feasible PHES sites with storage potential of about 23 million Gigawatt-hours (GWh) by using geographic information system (GIS) analysis. This is about one hundred times greater than required to support a 100% global renewable electricity system. Brownfield sites (existing reservoirs, old mining sites) will be included in a future analysis. http://re100.eng.anu.edu.au/global/
I’m a big fan of your work.
This reply actually concerns your October newsletter. And the topic of coal. Or rather coal vs nuclear in China. I mean, I get it that democracies have voted against nuclear, mostly. But in a totalitarian regime like China, is there a report / article you’d recommend that explains why China is not transitioning more “energetically” from coal to nuclear? (China is building nuclear reactors, true, but compared to what they have built in the last 20 years, it seems the pace is slow).
(On a side note, at the risk of repeating what others may have reported, the legend of Figure 2 states “Figure 1”; on page 4, the text states “green line in Figure 2”, whereas Figure 4 is meant, isn’t it?).
Thanks again Art,
Looking forward to reading more from you,
Owen.
wowowes998
You may wish to look at:
1. World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2021, published on 28 Sep 2021.
https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/-World-Nuclear-Industry-Status-Report-2021-.html
2. “Advanced” Isn’t Always Better: Assessing the Safety, Security, and Environmental Impacts of Non-Light-Water Nuclear Reactors, published 18 Mar 2021
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/advanced-isnt-always-better
Art, you state in the Wealthion podcast posted on YouTube on Oct 13 (from time interval 0:39:01):
“And until we figure out a way to store electric power, which we’re a long way from, at least on any kind of commercial scale – I mean the hard truth is, is that renewable energy is not ready for prime time.”
Evidence I see indicates on- and off-river pumped hydro are already proven “commercial scale” technologies for reliable multi-day energy storage capacity, and planet Earth apparently has many potential sites available. I’d suggest utility-scale batteries have recently demonstrated they are rapid-response “commercial scale” technologies for multi-hour storage capacity.
Per the scientific paper titled A review of pumped hydro energy storage, by Andrew Blakers et. al., published Mar 25:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2516-1083/abeb5b
The RE100 Group ANU has found about 616,000 potentially feasible PHES sites with storage potential of about 23 million Gigawatt-hours (GWh) by using geographic information system (GIS) analysis. This is about one hundred times greater than required to support a 100% global renewable electricity system. Brownfield sites (existing reservoirs, old mining sites) will be included in a future analysis.
http://re100.eng.anu.edu.au/global/
An atlas of proposed, announced, under construction, and operating PHES projects in Australia can be viewed here: https://reneweconomy.com.au/pumped-hydro-energy-storage-map-of-australia/
An atlas of proposed, announced, under construction, and operating Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) projects in Australia can be viewed here: https://reneweconomy.com.au/reneweconomy-unveils-big-battery-storage-map-of-australia/
You may also find the ARENA commissioned report Comparison of Dispatchable Renewable Electricity Options informative.
https://arena.gov.au/knowledge-bank/comparison-of-dispatchable-renewable-electricity-options/
Non-hydro renewables—mainly wind, solar and biomass—out-performed nuclear plants in electricity generation on a global scale. Hydro alone has been generating more power than nuclear for most of the past three decades.
https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/World-Nuclear-Industry-Status-Report-2021-773.html
Art, you say renewables are “not ready for prime time”, then what would you characterize nuclear fission technologies are?