Challenges to Energy Security - Is a demonization of conventional energy production under current global trends beneficial?: Difference between revisions

Especially in Germany, where in 2002 the goverment decided to phase out its nuclear power plants in the 2020s (which in 2007 contributed 27% of electricity production)1, conventional methods of power generation are increasingly under fire from environmental NGO's and political parties with the staunch belief that the sole solution to meeting world energy demand will rest upon renewable energies.

Only recently have environmentalists been successful in temporarily halting the construction of one of the most advanced coal power plants in the world at Datteln, Germany.2 It is, however, highly questionable whether such actions will have any effect on the environment other than seriously hampering that countries performance as one of the leading industrial nations, while at the same time China launches new plants with similar power but much less energy efficiency every week on the average.3 This comes at a time where the demand for modernization and replacement of electricity production capacities amounts to about 350 Billion Dollars in Europe alone.  

Both the negative image of coal due to environmental awareness and the unclear situation in the energy sector in general have therefore caused a recent revitalization of nuclear construction. However, there are institutional and financial difficulties involved which limit the rapid developement and deployment of nuclear facilities. The European Pressurized Reactor currently under construction in Finland is largely exceeding its preliminary budget and if it will ever be finished is unclear at the moment.5 Additionally the building of nuclear reactors in most western countries involves activities and proceedings by numerous government agencies and institutions which does not neccessarily limit large scale nuclear programs but requires a broad consensus in society.6 While the outlook of the nuclear industry is still bright, with EU-supported Generation-IV-reactors in development7 and Thorium as a replacement for the conventionally Uranium-fueled nuclear reactors there still remains the issue of waste disposal, which ultimately makes todays nuclear power a flawed concept both as a vehicle towards an economy based on renewable energies or if standards of intergenerational justice are applied.

Coal-fired power generation then remains one of the most risk-free and profitable ways of providing large industries and households with electricity. The downturn of coal power is of course the fact that about 100 Kilograms of Carbon-Dioxide per Gigajoule is emitted.8 The IEA however suggests that worldwide developments will make coal to have the fastest growing share in worldwide energy consumption by 2030. Also Germany has the second largest reserves of lignite coal, amounting almost to one-fifth of world production and in a wider perspective it is the 30 member states of the OECD that combine 50% of world coal reserves, while they only possess 8% of worlds crude oil and 10,6% of gas.9 These obvious advantages in both energy security and availability make coal a viable resource for power generation. If the currently planned process of capturing and storing the emitted Carbon-Dioxide is realized then coal power could pave the way for an economy fully based on renewables without resorting to large-scale nuclear technology or endangering energy security for the sake of CO2 reduction targets.