Reduction of elec. use should be the foremost priority of our government and for us as individuals. However, we will need to replace existing generation capacity and possibly increase capacity going forward. This is where the problem arises.
While I agree that our government's approach is totally back-asswards, nuclear power is probably the best long-term solution to the need to add generation capacity.
The problem is the technology; the goverment wants to spend billions on current nuke tech instead of looking at new nuclear, which is small, clean, and inherently safe. It uses much less nuclear material to accomplish generation and does not pose the same long term hazards as current nuclear systems. IMHO, it certainly is better than coal for the long term.
There are problems with many of the renewable generating technologies as well. Hydro causes destruction of wildlife habitat and displaces people from their homes. Transmission losses from hydro dams to the market make this method very inefficient. Wind power is great, but dependent on the weather and location. Also, there is some evidence that localized disturbances in the atmosphere are caused by concentrations of windmills, and could have an effect on our climate as the numbers of windmills increase. As well, there are finite numbers of windy sites to install the windmills. I speak from experience, as the largest wind farm in Canada is five miles north of my house. Here we are also experimenting with large-scale PV from solar collectors, but this tech is very expensive and largely unproven in the north where our sun exposure is lower.
Right now the Canadian and U.S. governments should be offering incentives to individuals and businesses to install local, small-scale renewable and green technologies to lessen our carbon footprint and lighten the load on the grid. This would be a very good use of the infrastructure funding and would have economic as well as environmental benefits for everyone.
Maybe GM could retool to manufacture wind turbines and PV panels instead of gas-guzzlers!
While I agree that our government's approach is totally back-asswards, nuclear power is probably the best long-term solution to the need to add generation capacity.
The problem is the technology; the goverment wants to spend billions on current nuke tech instead of looking at new nuclear, which is small, clean, and inherently safe. It uses much less nuclear material to accomplish generation and does not pose the same long term hazards as current nuclear systems. IMHO, it certainly is better than coal for the long term.
There are problems with many of the renewable generating technologies as well. Hydro causes destruction of wildlife habitat and displaces people from their homes. Transmission losses from hydro dams to the market make this method very inefficient. Wind power is great, but dependent on the weather and location. Also, there is some evidence that localized disturbances in the atmosphere are caused by concentrations of windmills, and could have an effect on our climate as the numbers of windmills increase. As well, there are finite numbers of windy sites to install the windmills. I speak from experience, as the largest wind farm in Canada is five miles north of my house. Here we are also experimenting with large-scale PV from solar collectors, but this tech is very expensive and largely unproven in the north where our sun exposure is lower.
Right now the Canadian and U.S. governments should be offering incentives to individuals and businesses to install local, small-scale renewable and green technologies to lessen our carbon footprint and lighten the load on the grid. This would be a very good use of the infrastructure funding and would have economic as well as environmental benefits for everyone.
Maybe GM could retool to manufacture wind turbines and PV panels instead of gas-guzzlers!
