Nuclear Power vs. Renewable Energy

Nuclear Power vs. Renewable Energy Development

May 08, 2011 - The subsidy to nuclear outweighed that to wind energy by a factor of over 40 ($39.4 billion versus $900 million). Some analysts consider solar photovoltaic (PV) energy to be competitive with nuclear new-build projects.

There could hardly be a more symbolic picture for the tête-a-tête of renewables and nuclear power than the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The disaster shut down 11 of the country’s nuclear reactors, at least six of which are now condemned, but the Japanese Wind Power Association stated, “there has been no wind farm damage reported by any association member, from either the earthquake or the tsunami.”

Within three weeks of the disaster, Fukushima operator TEPCO, one of the five largest electricity utilities in the world, lost more than three-quarters of its share value, while the Japan Wind Development Company nearly doubled its stock price.

The Fukushima crisis only exacerbates the major changes that the energy sector is facing due to a combination of environmental, resource, and demand factors. At the United Nations climate change conference in Cancún, Mexico, in December 2010, delegates agreed that “climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time and that all Parties share a vision for long-term cooperative action.”

For the first time under the U.N. climate framework, participants acknowledged that “deep cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions are required according to science, and as documented in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with a view to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions so as to hold the increase in global average temperature below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.” {continued}