Phy 3.7 Nuclear Debate
Thursday 11th April
Renewable Energy and Electricity
World Nuclear Association 2019
Renewable Energy and Electricity
World Nuclear Association 2019
- There is widespread popular support for using renewable energy, particularly solar and wind energy, which provide electricity without giving rise to any carbon dioxide emissions.
- Harnessing these for electricity depends on the cost and efficiency of the technology, which is constantly improving, thus reducing costs per peak kilowatt, and per kWh.
- Utilising electricity from solar and wind in a grid becomes problematical at high levels for complex but now well-demonstrated reasons. Supply does not correspond with demand.
- Back-up generating capacity is required due to the intermittent nature of solar and wind. System costs escalate with increasing proportion of variable renewables.
- Policy settings to support renewables are generally required to confer priority in grid systems and also subsidise them, and some 50 countries have these provisions.
- Utilising solar and wind-generated electricity in a stand-alone system requires corresponding battery or other storage capacity.
- The possibility of large-scale use of hydrogen in the future as a transport fuel increases the potential for both renewables and base-load electricity supply.
