Although few people would deny that switching to alternative and sustainable sources of energy such as wind, wave and solar as the oil runs out makes a lot of sense, But we should first examine what energy demands we have before we do this and try to reduce this demand before we start wasting time and money on a vast scale and getting little back for our efforts. A few slightly boring but nonetheless up to date facts and figures gives us a good and realistic starting point.
The government seems to regard Nuclear power as "green".
I disagree of course for all the usual reasons that a fully fledged and veteran tree hugger could be expected to use, ie; expensive, slow to get online, dangerous, terrorist targets, dependence on dwindling uranium fuel from dodgy sources and waste impossible to dispose of safely or cheaply. 25 years of campaigning on Nukes has not convinced me one jot that it makes any economic sense. If we were to replace all our coal and oil burning power stations with nukes, it would take. (wait for it) 300 of them. According to American calculations this would cost £750BN and dont forget we still have no idea what safe disposal of all that waste would cause let alone where we would put it.
I disagree of course for all the usual reasons that a fully fledged and veteran tree hugger could be expected to use, ie; expensive, slow to get online, dangerous, terrorist targets, dependence on dwindling uranium fuel from dodgy sources and waste impossible to dispose of safely or cheaply. 25 years of campaigning on Nukes has not convinced me one jot that it makes any economic sense. If we were to replace all our coal and oil burning power stations with nukes, it would take. (wait for it) 300 of them. According to American calculations this would cost £750BN and dont forget we still have no idea what safe disposal of all that waste would cause let alone where we would put it.
Current favourite with many but not me is Wind Power.
The Tory leader has a small windmill on his roof. Forwared thinking, setting a good example etc etc. Sadly no. His wind turbine will produce probably less than one percent of his electricity needs if he is a typical user, ie washing machine, TVs Hi Fi, computers, microwave, dishwasher and if he uses air conditioning or electrical heating his percentage supply is even less. If he was really radical, disposed of many of his gadgets, converted his house to 12 or 24 volt DC system with battery back up and converted his lighting to very low energy, LED sources, then he is in with a chance but in the meantime, a windmill on his (or your) roof is at best tokenistic.
The Tory leader has a small windmill on his roof. Forwared thinking, setting a good example etc etc. Sadly no. His wind turbine will produce probably less than one percent of his electricity needs if he is a typical user, ie washing machine, TVs Hi Fi, computers, microwave, dishwasher and if he uses air conditioning or electrical heating his percentage supply is even less. If he was really radical, disposed of many of his gadgets, converted his house to 12 or 24 volt DC system with battery back up and converted his lighting to very low energy, LED sources, then he is in with a chance but in the meantime, a windmill on his (or your) roof is at best tokenistic.
But what about serious modern windfarms? Surely they provide much more energy. Sadly the truth is its not much better and expansion has a number of serious limitations. If for example we as a nation chose to replace our coal and oil power stations with not Nuke power but in stead, Wind Power, more than half the entire UK land mass would have to be covered in windmills. So half the country covered in windmills or 300 nuclear power stations and enormouse amouts of dangerous waste for half a million years. ....TBC
So what do we do then, well we could do the unheard of thing and actually reduce the demand by using low energy technologies.
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