On 24 October, I was honored to moderate a great roundtable in Berlin with three European energy experts, sponsored by Der Divan Kulturehaus. SUGGESTION: While listening, open up that speaker’s file below. You’ll find Ben Aris’ data-slides on Russian price-cap failings, Andriy Kobolyev’s proposal to tax Moscow’s oil & Morten Frisch’s slides on EU renewable shortcomings & continued oil and gas needs.
Continue readingPosted in Berlin, Climate Change, Ehergiewende, Energiewende, Energy and Environment, Energy and Geopolitics, Energy and Geostrategy, Energy crisis, energy war, EU gas, Euroepen Union, gas crisis, gazprom, geopolitics, Nord Stream 2, Oil supply, Putin, Renewables, Renewables, Resource conflicts, Russia, Sanctions, Ukraine, Ukraine, Uncategorized
Tagged Energy, Energy crisis, energy prices, gas crisis, geopolitics, Germany, oil price cap, Renewables, Russia, Sanctions, Ukraine, Ukraine war, USA
A lively debate! I defended the Finnish model, as did Finnish expert Rauli Partanen.
Finland, having just completed and put online Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Olkiluoto 3, is considering adding more carbon-free nuclear power plants. Its two older nuclear plants, online since the 1970s and 80s, are operating 24/7 at an impressive 92.8% of full capacity. By comparison, I explained German onshore wind achieved only 19% and offshore only 35% of the installed turbines’ full-rated capacities in 2022 (Calculated from Fraunhofer data – T.O’D.).
Finland also uses its natural endowment of no-carbon hydro wisely, and embraces a limited amount of variable renewables. I explained that this is in contrast to Germany with its (IMHO) over-dependence on renewables and willful destruction of 17 nuclear facilities, which is increasingly requiring installation of expensive new and rebuilt grids, and “grid-scale storage” for when wind and sun are low.
The third guest, the Paris chair of “The Nuclear Consulting Group” was actually anti-nuclear, defending an only-renewables strategy. I found his arguments, generally based on anecdotal expert opinions, as opposed to broad data, unsatisfactory; but consistent with the “100% renewables and no nuclear” school of thought, as I have termed it. (1)
Some facts on Finland’s energy: According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Finland has “the world’s most ambitious carbon targets,” planning for neutrality by 2035 (IEA; timestamp 16:35), with 40% of its electricity in 2023 being nuclear (ibid.; timestamp 17:21). According to the latest (2023) IEA review, “Finland’s nuclear and renewable power strengths provide a solid foundation for reaching its ambitious climate targets.”
- Here’s the lineup of the show:
TRT London – Round Table. Jun 9, 2023: Electricity bills have spiked across Europe. But, in Finland it’s going in the other direction.
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Posted in Nuclear power, Renewables, Uncategorized
Tagged Finland, Nuclear, Renewables, TRT
Dr. Thomas W. O’Donnell, Berlin 27.01.22 (Polish original 22.09.22)
Printed in Polish by Banker.pl as Komisja Europejska może uznać energetykę jądrową za “zieloną” 2021-09-22, from a written interview with Artur Chierskiwsky (PAP, Brussels) Here’s the unpublished English.-Tom O’D. [Edit:: Headline word “betrays” was initially miswritten “belays”].
Reportedly, the EU Commission plans to soon include nuclear power in its green finance taxonomy, finally making it eligible for favorable financing and carbon credits on a par with wind and solar.[1]
This could be spun two ways: as a victory for science over populist capture of climate policies, or as a tipping point in Brussels angst at the growing complexities and costs of the “100% renewables and no nuclear” model.
In reality, it’s some and some.
On the one hand, in March, the Commission received reports solicited from the Joint Research Centre (JRC), its scientific expert arm, finding that nuclear waste is “manageable”, posing no “significant” harm to the environment, and that nuclear energy has been demonstrated to be eminently safe.[2]
However, these assessments are not surprising. Had the Commission requested these years ago, they undoubtedly would have concluded similarly. Nuclear, public-health, risk-assessment and other expert bodies have been saying these things for years (full disclosure: my PhD is in experimental nuclear physics [3]).
The question then is, why is this scientific consensus only now becoming actionable for the Commission?
Continue readingPosted in Ehergiewende, Energy and Geopolitics, Energy and Geostrategy, Environment, Euroepen Union, European Union, France, gas crisis, Gazprom, German Green Party, Germany, Nord Stream, Nord Stream 2, Nuclear power, Poland, Putin, Renewables, Russia, shale gas, The USA, Uncategorized
Tagged Energy, Germany, Nuclear eergy, Nuclear power, Poland, Renewables, Taxonomy, United States
I was quite happy with the answer of IEA (International Energy Agency*) director, Dr. Fadi Birol, to two critical questions I posed, first on how the European Commission should include nuclear power in its “green financing taxonomy,” and secondly, against German over-reliance on variable renewables (I termed this “renewable fundamentalism”) which I said produces high “organizational entropy,” that is, unworkable and unaffordable, completely “reinvented” so-called “smart grids” with “grid scale stage” whose technology is not sufficiently developed all to cope with the problem of unavoidable wind and solar energy fluctuations, which become more massive as the percentage of installed renewables increases. This is a significant contribution to Germany’s (and the EU’s) present crises of energy supply and price security. (The video above is set to start at my two questions.)
Continue readingPosted in Alternative energy, Climate Change, Ehergiewende, Energiewende, Energiewende, Energy and Environment, Environment, EU gas, Euroepen Union, German Green Party, Germany, Nuclear power, Poland, Renewables, Renewables, The USA, Three Seas, Uncategorized
Tagged Energiewende, Energy, Fadi BIrol, Germany, iea, Nuclear, Poland, Renewables, Three Seas Initiative, United States
The Global Barrel 