Fuk-D disclosures
This is a very good description of the type of "analysis" that was going on Fukushima Daaichi thread towards the end.
I just hope the same road will not be traveled in this thread.
Meanwhile, Germany took a major step away from nuclear power with a
solar power plant being connected to grid on May 27. The Green lobby (both outside as well as inside BRF) must be very happy.
I guess it's time for all of us to celebrate. However, once the celebrations are done, we can look at the small print. That says:
8.3 MW generation comes from a solar farm covering 19.3 hectares of
former farmland.
But not to worry the cheerful comment in the story is:
"PV power plants of this size contribute to a high degree to our future electrical power supply. This means not only can nuclear power plants go offline but plans for new coal fired power stations will be rendered obsolete."
According to this
site
In Germany (as of June 2010), 17 nuclear power plants with an electric gross output of 21,507 MW are in operation. In 2009 they generated 149 billion kWh of electricity.
I wonder how many thousands of hectares will be required to generate that kind of power via solar? Heck I've got an even simpler question: How many hectares of solar farms will be needed to run a BMW or Volkswagen plant? And of course the small detail about the cost per unit of such power is left for later.
Sorry folks, but I firmly believe that if the Germans really seriously close down their nuke plants (they have been waffling on timelines, and you know when politicians waffle) then the power generation slack will be replaced by either more coal fired plants or gas from Russia. Given the carbon concerns I'd think the latter is the more likely. No wonder Putin has been chatting up to them.
Now mortgaging its energy security to Russia, I suspect, isn't really going to be very popular in Germany. So between two unpopular decisions (the other is of course continuing with Nuclear) I wonder which way Germany will go? Any guesses?
Of course it can decide to let all electricity intense manufacturing to go off shore and revert back to a nice pastoral lifestyle. But why do I feel that's not going to be popular either?
Coming back to the Indian context, if 8.3 MW require, 19.3 hectares I wonder how much would be required to substitute Jaitapur nuclear plant with solar? I wonder if Vandana Shiva or junior Thackeray saab will requisition the necessary land for this?
Incidentally the same land argument applies to land short Japan.
Bottomline I looking forward to Japan and Germany saying No to nuclear and
actually moving to close down plants, as opposed to giving political talk about doing so. For anyone who believes this talk, I have a proposition. My mother's fourth uncle's daughters' father-in-law's third sister's brother-in-law's son owns the right to the historic Howrah Bridge made from famous British Steel. He's selling it cheap and asked me to find a customer. Interested folks please let me know!