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Author Topic: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth  (Read 50621 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
« Reply #240 on: May 01, 2017, 06:09:21 pm »


Listen Up: Westinghouse Nuclear Energy Killed by Gas, Solar and Wind 
   

May 1, 2017

By The Energy Show on Renewable Energy World 

Video killed the radio star — just as natural gas, wind and solar are slowly but surely killing the nuclear power industry (we’re already saying good bye to coal). Unfortunately, the venerable Westinghouse Electric Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 29, 2017, dragged down by huge losses in their nuclear power plant construction business. But the story about the demise of Westinghouse is more nuanced, read on to find out how and why solar killed nuclear.

George Westinghouse founded the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1886. He teamed up with Nikola Tesla to develop and promote AC power, instead of the DC power infrastructure preferred by Thomas Edison. By using transformers to step up voltages for long distance power distribution and then step down voltages again for home use, the economics of AC power turned out to be much more favorable than DC power (the geeky reason is explained by Ohm’s Law and conductor sizes). To this day the world’s electrical system is still almost exclusively based on AC power. Over a 100-year period the Westinghouse Electric Corporation expanded into appliances, locomotives, entertainment — and even solar power (for many years Westinghouse held the record for solar cell efficiency).

Fast forward to the 1990s when the Westinghouse Electric Corporation came to the conclusion that their broadcasting subsidiary — the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) — had the potential to be more profitable than their manufacturing businesses. So they sold off all of their manufacturing operations, renamed the parent company as CBS, and licensed the Westinghouse name to leading companies in related market segments. Their nuclear business, which was named the Westinghouse Electric Company, eventually ended up as a subsidiary of Toshiba.

Toshiba expected to benefit from a renaissance in nuclear power, leveraging less expensive reactor designs and the need for carbon-free electricity. But three developments prevented this nuclear renaissance. First, the actual construction of these new reactor designs ended up being very expensive and time consuming. Second, nuclear power is still plagued by safety (Fukushima), nuclear waste and proliferation issues. And the final nail in the nuclear coffin is economic: electric power plants fueled by natural gas, solar and wind are much less expensive to build and operate, and can be constructed in several years — as opposed to several decades for a new nuclear plant. For more about the fate of the nuclear power industry and how solar killed nuclear energy, Listen Up to the Energy Show on Renewable Energy World.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2017/05/listen-up-westinghouse-nuclear-energy-killed-by-gas-solar-and-wind.html

Stupid me thought Nukes were DOA in Texas, with all the alternative energy that's already online, but apparently they are not:

Several energy companies are planning to build nuclear power plants to meet electricity demand in a way that is cost effective and protects air quality. In Texas, Exelon, Luminant and NRG Energy have filed license applications with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build at least five reactors in Victoria County, Glen Rose and Matagorda County. Plans for expansion in Matagorda were put on hold after the March 2011 earthquake in Japan caused a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant, 155 miles north of Tokyo. Amarillo Power/UniStar is planning to build one additional reactor near Amarillo, but plans there have also hit delays. Upon completion, the plants could provide enough electricity to serve 6.8 million homes annually.

https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/nuclear-energy-in-texas/


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I sure am sorry to see this happening. I don't expect Rick Perry to do anything to stop it.

Eddie,
Yes, the nuke pukes are busy doing what they do in Texas. Yes, the nuclear waste problem is the gift that keeps giving for those who want to pollute poor neighborhoods and make the public pay for it based on "national security". This has been their M.O. for over half a century. None of that nuclear power stuff was EVER cost effective at producing energy, never mind the radionuclide pollution, Uranium mine pollution (still mostly NOT addressed because the hundreds of abandoned mines are in Native American lands) and other "externalized" costs we-the-people are STUCK with for about 100,000 years, more or less.   

It's over for them, Eddie. You will have die hard bastards trying to make wind and solar "illegal" or "too polluting" LOL! in order to keep nuclear white elephants alive. But I'm confident that Renewable Energy has a strange bedfellow ally here called the frackers. The frackers have ZERO intention of allowing the nuclear power people to make a comeback. Consequently, it's all out rug pulling time for nuclear power.

Here's the deal, Eddie. There is only ONE reason nuclear power reactors currently get subsidized over and over and over despite them not making any sense economically: Nuclear Submarines and nuclear weapons! That's right. As strange as it sounds, the M.I.C. has a welfare program for nuclear submarine commanders and Universities that teach nuclear physics.

Yep, the university nuclear physics studies are funded by we-the-people BECAUSE TPTB want to maintain a current level of people (when the old nuke puke farts retire) that understand nuclear physics so that our subs and carriers and BOMBS are kept up to date.

Recently, that came out in England. The ONLY reason they are trying to build the Hinkley nuclear power white elephant (which FORCES the English to pay electricity rates for the next FORTY YEARS ABOVE, FAR ABOVE!, what it NOW costs to get juice from wind and solar) is because they want JOBS for their submarine crews and a REASON for people to study to make nuclear bombs and other nuclear fun and games stuff. Scotland has been trying to give England the finger on nukes for over a decade (unsuccessfully - England won't pull their submarine bases out). So Texas is sort of in the same bind that Scotland is.

Texans are creative. Especially when they have to fossil fuelers helping them be creative, if ya know what I mean.    They'll figure something out that makes economic sense eventually. For now, if your utility tries to sweet talk you into the same crapola they are doing in Georgia (the utility building the nukes that apparently will never open CAN, and DOES, charge CURRENT customers monthly fees for losses on the construction of the nukes WITHOUT ANY TIME LIMIT),  I suggest you politely remind them that for profit corporations are not supposed to stiff people for losses that their customers did not incur.  ;)

We are DONE with nukes in Vermont. I hope you Texans can soon stop those money pit disasters soon as well.

Moving right along , here's an article that pretty well covers the sorry ass political situation in this country. I think you and I can find common ground in this article:


Here’s Why We Shouldn’t Laugh at Donald Trump’s 100-Day Faceplant


Jon Schwarz

April 29 2017, 11:52 a.m.

https://theintercept.com/2017/04/29/heres-why-we-shouldnt-laugh-at-donald-trumps-100-day-faceplant/






 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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