Editorial of Armin Scheuermann, Editor; Issue 2/2011
PV Power Post-Fukushima
2010 was a year of contradictions. On the one hand installed PV capacity almost doubled from some 23 GW in 2009 to a worldwide cumulative installed capacity of some 40 GW. On the other hand the voices of the opponents of PV technology grew louder. The main argument: The technology promoted by various governments is too expensive.
Armin Scheuermann, Editor-in-chief, photovoltaic production
I already picked up this situation in the September issue of photovoltaic production: “The crocodile tears of the nuclear power lobby cannot wash away the inconvenient fact that their own industry will be subsidised over the next thousands of years. The costs for nuclear waste disposal, for security of mines, for rectification of mining damage, and for solving the carbon dioxide problem are expenses that will be payable in the future. And these costs will amount to much, much more than the estimated rise of electricity prices by 10% in the coming year.”
My mistake: The collateral costs of nuclear power are not due for payment some time in the future but right now. The latest example is that of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima. Experts estimate that the owner of the facility, Tepco, will have to invest more than US $ 130 billion in the coming 3 decades to fix the problem. In Germany, an interim storage facility for low and middle level radioactive waste is currently being renovated at an estimated cost of US $ 3 billion. This disused salt mine was supposed to have been safe for some thousand years. The next sarcophagus for the Chernobyl reactor is estimated to cost more than US $ 3 billion – and will help to fix the problem for another 100 years. The half-life of plutonium is 24 000 years… In addition, according to the International Energy Agency IEA, governments around the world have invested more than US $ 1 000 billion in exploration and development of nuclear energy since the 1950s.
This in mind I come to the conclusion: We cannot afford nuclear power. Cheaper power today will generate exorbitant costs now and in the future. The time of cheap energy is over. The time for renewable energy is long overdue.
Your Opinion? mailto:armin.scheuermann@huethig.de