How sustainable is zero carbon electricity?
I recently received my electricity bill from EDF Energy and all over the page the company was crowing about the electricity they generate, including that which they supply to me, being zero carbon because no fossil fuels are involved.
But though it might be carbon zero, it is in no way eco-friendly and certainly not sustainable because much is produced by using nuclear energy, which is extremely dangerous – for two obvious reasons.
When something goes wrong with a nuclear power station the consequences are always catastrophic, as we know from Chernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island, to name but three nuclear disasters which released hazardous radiation over very long distances.
Moreover, nuclear fission also produces highly hazardous waste materials, much of which will remain radioactive for centuries. In the UK, much of our nuclear waste is stored in purpose-built containers at Sellafield on the North West coast of England, near the Lake District, and at regular intervals quantities of the toxic waste are discharged into the sea. Yet more evidence that we seem to think it’s OK to treat our oceans as a dustbin!
This has unsurprisingly had an adverse affect on sea life and I’d hate to be a fish or bivalve or seabird living in the Irish Sea.
This waste material is going to cause a serious headache for future generations because obviously we can’t go on forever storing the stuff in purpose-built sealed drums or even underground, and expect no adverse consequences.
Sellafield has had its share of accidents too and so far they have been largely contained – allegedly. But it can only be a matter of time before there’s a catastrophe.
Moreover, what do we do when we run out of land?
Lots of people hate the sight of wind farms, but I regard them as quite beautiful, especially as they seem to cause no harm unless you’re in a ship and you hit one of them at sea. The slender wind turbines with their outstretched blades circling the sky to my eyes look like a group of ballet dancers, at least from a distance. They may also encourage the growth of coral.
OK, a field full of solar panels is not so beautiful, but they can provide the likes of you and me with electricity with, as far as I’m aware, no danger, so they are doing us a wonderful service – and the energy is getting cheaper too, so it looks like we’ll have to learn to love them. At any rate, has anyone seen a nuclear power station lately? When I sail my boat across the Channel to Cherbourg there are two of them on the hillside, very menacing and not a pretty sight. Who knows what invisible radiation danger might lurk?
I’d much rather be greeted by a hilltop full of wind generators when I make my landfall.
Next time I get my electricity bill I hope to see that the energy with which I have been supplied is genuinely eco-friendly.
Finally a quick word about electric vehicles.
Don’t be fooled. Some hybrid and battery-powered cars rely on fossil fuels for manufacturing, batteries and recharging. By some estimates, charging an electric vehicle at night in certain coal-dependent areas can generate more emissions than a petrol or diesel powered car.
To make our future transport systems truly emission-free, the entire supply chain of electric vehicles must be emission-free too.
Our technologists will be very busy for while we will obviously need eco-friendly energy, I believe we should at all costs avoid going down the nuclear route.
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