Environment
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2% of GDP to combat global warming
£27 per tonne of carbon
$590 billion per year over 20-50 years
$9.5 trillion for one off solutions
Cheaper to pay off quickly through material cuts
2.5C rise = 1.7% GDP cost, 4% Africa, 5% India
£70 social cost per tonne of carbon
28,431,741 tonnes of carbon
£1,990,221,870 per year
A recent study estimated the costs of adapting to even a one metre sea level rise in the US would amount to US$156 billion
72% of reducible greenhouse gases are CO2
95% of general greenhouse gases are water vapour
Save over £168 billion from very little with CO2?
Cost of wind turbine is £25,000
EU = 13.8% CO2
60% pollution developed world?
Bonn, June 13 (IANS) Industrialised countries should be legally bound to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions “by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels in 2020″, India and 36 other developing countries have proposed.
The proposal, made on Friday, the last day of the June 1-12 talks here in preparation for the climate summit in Copenhagen this December, also says industrialised countries must reduce their GHG emissions after 2012 “by applying the principle of historical responsibility, from 1850 to 2005.”
Apart from India, the developing countries that have submitted this joint proposal to amend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol include China, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The developing countries, which are getting increasingly frustrated by the lack of commitment from industrialised countries even while climate change gathers pace, have proposed that between 2013 and 2020, the rich countries reduce their GHG emissions significantly, some by as much as eight times.
They also want that in future, talks on GHG emission reductions start “at least seven years before the end of any commitment period”. The current commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.
Between 2008 and 2012, industrialised countries (except the US, which has not ratified the protocol), are legally obliged to reduce their GHG emissions by five percent, compared to 1990 levels. This is the figure that India and the other developing countries want raised to 40 percent, taking all industrialised countries together.
People with degrees or professional qualifications were the group who wanted nuclear most and wanted gas and coal least.
68% of people living next to wind farms were happy, nuclear stations most considered eyesores. 35% nuclear, 17% wind farms.
In their comparison, deaths per TW-yr of electricity produced from 1970 to 1992 are quoted as 885 for hydropower, 342 for coal, 85 for natural gas, and 8 for nuclear.
74000000000000000J per ton of Uranium.
32000000000J per ton of Coal.
2312500 times more for Uranium.
48000000000J per ton of Oil.
1541667 times more for Uranium.
Independent report.
Electricity demands will increase by 10%.
£10 billion pounds to get 50% renewables
54 (approx) wind stations in Scotland.
68 hydro-electric.
1/2/3 oil and gas.
2/3/4/5 coal.
2 nuclear.
36% people didn’t really want nuclear.
50% of Scottish energy is nuclear.
Nuclear power plants helped avoid 90 percent of all carbon emissions averted in the U.S. energy sector between 1981 and 1994.
There are currently 104 operating U.S. nuclear power plants that produce over 20 percent of U.S. electricity.
World uranium production in 2001 was 35,767 metric tons or 78.9 million pounds.
Worldwide, there are 441 nuclear power plants that supply about 16 percent of the world’s electricity.
Shutting down a nuclear plant is also an extremely expensive process. In the UK the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has increased the overall cost for decommissioning nuclear power plants from £57 billion in 2005 to £73 billion in 2008, according to the BBC and WNA. However, the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee was told in July 2008 that this cost could rise further and that it is almost impossible to come up with an accurate figure. Stablising a plant and ensuring that it is safe seems to be a big imponderable. If a nuclear power station has a life of 30 to 40 years decommissioning costs can massively increase the overall cost of nuclear energy.
Provisional contracts for two 1,117 MWe AP1000 reactors at the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station have estimated final costs of approximately $4.9 billion per reactor.
On April 9, 2008, Georgia Power Company reached a contract agreement for two AP1000 reactors to be built at Vogtle, at an estimated final cost of $14 billion plus $3 billion for necessary transmission upgrades.
Nuclear plants require fissionable fuel. Generally, the fuel used is uranium, although other materials may be used (See MOX fuel). In 2005, prices on the world market averaged US$20/lbs (US$44.09/kg). On 2007-04-19, prices reached US$113/lbs (US$249.12/kg). On 2008-7-2, the price had dropped to $59/lb.
Currently, there are proposals to increase the numbers of nuclear power plants by 57% more reactors from the 435 currently in operation, according to John S. Herold’s Ruppel.
In USA many utilities estimates now average $325 million per reactor all-up (1998 $).
In France, decommissioning of Brennilis Nuclear Power Plant, a fairly small 70 MW power plant, already cost 480 millions euros (20x the estimate costs) and is still pending after 20 years. Despite the huge investments in securing the dismantlement, radioactive elements such as Plutonium, Cesium-137 and Cobalt-60 leaked out into the surrounding lake.
In the UK, decommissioning of Windscale Advanced Cooled Reactor (WAGR), a 32 MW power plant, cost 117 millions euros.
In Germany, decommissioning of Niederaichbach nuclear power plant, a 100MW power plant, cost about 90 millions euros.
Torness consists of two Advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR) capable of producing a peak rating of 1364 MWe. It is expected to operate until 2023.
Generally, a nuclear power plant is significantly more expensive to build than an equivalent coal-fueled or gas-fueled plant. However, coal is significantly more expensive than nuclear fuel, and natural gas significantly more expensive than coal — thus, capital costs aside, natural gas-generated power is the most expensive.
http://www.nea.fr/html/general/facts.html says how much TerraWatt hours are produced.
Every reactor construction project generates, conservatively, about 3,500-4000 construction jobs over a four-to-eight year period. Once built, every new reactor produces 400-700 permanent, high paying jobs which cannot be outsourced overseas and which remain in the community for upwards of 40-60 years.
Under £400,000,000 to recommision.
Hunterston B is capable of supplying the electricity needs of over 1 million homes.
Uranium enrichment produces many tons of depleted uranium (DU) which consists of U-238 with most of the easily fissile U-235 isotope removed. U-238 is a tough metal with several commercial uses — for example, aircraft production, radiation shielding, and armor — as it has a higher density than lead. Depleted uranium is also useful in munitions as DU penetrators (bullets or APFSDS tips) ‘self sharpen’, due to uranium’s tendency to fracture along adiabatic shear bands. Can also be used as a fuel.
There are concerns that U-238 may lead to health problems in groups exposed to this material excessively, like tank crews and civilians living in areas where large quantities of DU ammunition have been used. In January 2003 the World Health Organization released a report finding that contamination from DU munitions were localized to a few tens of meters from the impact sites and contamination of local vegetation and water was ‘extremely low’. The report also states that approximately 70% of ingested DU will leave the body after twenty four hours and 90% after a few days.
Uranium is a fairly common element in the Earth’s crust. Uranium is approximately as common as tin or germanium in Earth’s crust, and is about 40 times more common than silver. Uranium is a constituent of most rocks, dirt, and of the oceans. Concentration – uranium ranks 48th among the most abundant elements found in natural crustal rock.
The price of uranium was approximately $10.75 per pound in early 2003. By mid 2006, the price had risen to approximately $45.00 per pound. In early 2007 the price approached $100.00 per pound. Now about $140 (£100).
One ton of natural uranium can produce more than 40 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. This is equivalent to burning 16,000 tons of coal or 80,000 barrels of oil.
The worldwide production of uranium in 2003 amounted to 41,429 tonnes, of which 25% was mined in Canada. Other important uranium mining countries are Australia, Russia, Niger, Namibia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, South Africa, and the USA.
While the amounts of uranium used are a fraction of the amounts of coal or oil used in conventional power plants, fuel costs account for about 28% of a nuclear plant’s operating expenses. Other recent sources cite lower fuel costs, such as 16%. Doubling the price of uranium would add only 7% to the cost of electricity produced.
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines. At the end of 2007, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 94.1 gigawatts. Although wind produces only about 1% of world-wide electricity use.
Betz’ law states that no more than 1.5 megawatts could be extracted from the wind. Less than 59%.
Three-fold increase in the number of on-shore wind turbines over the next decade for Scotland to meet its renewable targets i.e. more than 2,000 new turbines to meet the target of 50% of electricity from clean, green, renewable sources : 1.3 gigawatt currently, 6.6 GW required.
900 wind turbines currently in place. These new 2,000 will take up five times as much space.
The vast majority of electricity from renewables to meet this 50% longer by 2020 will come from on-shore wind turbines – offshore wind, wave and tidal are unlikely to play a significant role.
These predictions have been described as realistic by some experts, although some believe they are pessimistic, feeling that these will be future developments in offshore wind, hydro, wave and tidal.
Anti-wind campaigners “horrified”.
It has been estimated that commercial-scale clean-coal power stations (coal-burning power stations with carbon capture and sequestration) cannot be commercially viable and widely adopted before 2020 or 2025.
CCS cannot deliver in time to avoid dangerous climate change. The earliest possibility for deployment of CCS at utility scale is not expected before 2030. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions have to start falling after 2015, just seven years away.
CCS wastes energy. The technology uses between 10 and 40% of the energy produced by a power station. Wide scale adoption of CCS is expected to erase the efficiency gains of the last 50 years, and increase resource consumption by one third.
Storing carbon underground is risky. Safe and permanent storage of CO2 cannot be guaranteed. Even very low leakage rates could undermine any climate mitigation efforts.
CCS is expensive. It could lead to a doubling of plant costs, and an electricity price increase of 21-91%. Money spent on CCS will divert investments away from sustainable solutions to climate change.
CCS carries significant liability risks. It poses a threat to health, ecosystems and the climate. It is unclear how severe these risks will be.
Because they are installed in the open to contend with all weathers the windmill lifetimes are only rated for 25 years.
Coal and Gas globally produce over 1 billion tonnes a year of this greenhouse gas.
Note that this is not ‘Clean Coal’ which, as advertised, is merely the capture of particles, Sulphur, and other pollutants, leaving the most dangerous waste of all, CO2, to be discharged.
Traditional coal has a high sulphur content, now banned by Europe, but clean coal technology can reduce emissions by 90 per cent and carbon dioxide by 10 per cent.
A 2003 study conducted by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on greenhouse gases, found that the cost of building a Shell-designed IGCC that doesn’t capture carbon could cost $1,371 per kW and a comparable system that captures carbon could cost $1,860 per kW.”
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February 20, 2010 at 11:31 am |
About 95% of greenhouse gases are water vapour.
February 20, 2010 at 3:18 pm |
Not relevant to any likely debates as it would do harm to cut them, so if you want, consider it, 72% of relevant greenhouse gases are CO2.
March 6, 2010 at 10:16 am |
Water vapour is very relevant. We can increase water vapour levels by growing more trees. Also the climate models assume strong feedbacks from the evaporation of water.
March 7, 2010 at 12:02 am |
read my replies properly, relevant to debates, no climate change debate will propose cutting water.
March 6, 2010 at 10:23 am |
Also with adjusting to sea level rises the IPCC assumes a rise in sea levels of 18-38cm in a best case scenario and 26-59cm in a worst case scenario. I know what you are thinking. Rapid dynamical changes in ice flow when melted water lubricates ice causing it to break away. In 1998 we saw a rapid dynamical change in ice flow. It was so small that it was difficult for satellites to measure.