Faced with the double challenge of balancing their energy supply against the needs of growing populations and maintaining economic growth at a minimum cost to the environment, many countries are increasingly looking for sustainable energy sources , said an industry expert.

According to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook published in 2015, by 2040 nearly half of the world's electricity will be generated through low-carbon technologies.

“The fast-growing economies of the Middle East are no exception to this trend, with countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and others already making the first steps towards switching away from hydrocarbons,” said Tom Blees, president of the Science Council for Global Initiatives (SCGI).

“One dilemma these countries almost inevitably face is the choice between the various energy options in their energy portfolio. Nuclear and renewable would seem the frontrunners here, both having become quite widespread in many parts of the world, including the Middle East, and both having their supporters and detractors,” he added.

Countries in the Middle East, where nuclear development is rapidly taking hold and wind and solar resources abound all year round, on the one hand, would seem uniquely placed to compare the relative uses and efficiency of nuclear and renewable energy in meeting the region’s needs.

On the other hand, it could be argued that this way of looking at nuclear and renewable energy as a dichotomy is fundamentally flawed and does not take into account the very different nature of these technologies. This is the view shared by many energy experts.

Putting nuclear and renewable energy side by side is ‘really an apples and oranges comparison because renewables aren’t reliable and they are only able to provide a fraction of the energy that is needed, so you always have to build so-called backup capacity, which actually provides more energy than renewables in every case, and you have to supply enough backup capacity to meet peak demand for times that both wind and solar are producing nothing or next to nothing’, explained Blees.

Perhaps the best way to look at nuclear and renewable energy is through the crucial concept underlying the functioning of modern economies with regard to power – base load. Base load refers to the minimum level of demand on an electrical supply system over 24 hours, and is required for industries to operate properly 24/7/365, where blackouts can result in structural and financial damage worth billions of dollars.

“It therefore follows that base load has to be reliable and predictable and needs a stable source of power. That’s where renewable energy falls short,” Blees noted.

For one thing, renewable sources of energy are notoriously unreliable: their output is linked directly to weather conditions and other external factors and is referred to as intermittent power. Even in countries that enjoy plenty of sun and wind throughout the year, wind can only achieve a net capacity factor of roughly 25 per cent and photovoltaic solar is even less at only 20 per cent or less whereas newer generation nuclear power plants can now achieve a net capacity factor in excess of 92 per cent.

 
Another issue with renewable energy sources is their economic viability. According to “The Net Benefits of Low and No-Carbon Electricity Technologies” research published by Brookings Institution in 2014, solar and wind facilities suffer from a very high capacity cost per megawatt, very low capacity factors and low reliability, which result in low avoided emissions and low avoided energy cost per dollar invested. Expensive to install and with a relatively short service life, they require substantial government subsidies to provide any significant power output, which, furthermore, cannot be stored economically.

Thus, the power derived from renewable energy is too expensive per kilowatt-hour to be really competitive, especially when compared to the electricity prices made possible by the latest technological offerings from such global nuclear players as China, South Korea and Russia.

Huge demand for baseload power also means considerable stress on the environment. With renewable being unable to provide a stable source of baseload power, the only feasible alternative to nuclear is coal – which is bad news for the environment as coal ash is actually more radioactive than nuclear waste.

“Take Germany, whose government’s decision to abandon nuclear power has led to an annual increase in CO2 emissions by 28 million tons. The economic load of abandoning nuclear power is also likely to be enormous – the cost of replacing nuclear power with wind and solar is estimated at over three trillion euros, with no guarantee this will in fact help reduce emissions,” said Blees.

In terms of load following, nuclear also has the edge in agility and adjustability: unlike renewable energy facilities, which cost a lot to install and cannot be switched on and off to follow the demand, nuclear power plants, once built, can be allowed to remain online, as demonstrated by the example of France, which has been implementing nuclear load-following for decades. Newer nuclear plant designs are even more versatile in load-following roles.

Blees sees the progressing development of nuclear programmes in the Middle East as proof of nuclear power’s competitive potential for the region.

“The fact that the UAE and other countries that have almost constant sun and who have plenty of money to have really good advisors to advise them on what type of power plants to build are building nuclear power plants pretty much tells the story that, even in the most perfect environments, solar power still isn’t competitive with nuclear,” said Blees.

“This doesn’t mean, however, that renewable energy does not have its uses, which brings us to the third kind of power plant after baseload and load-following ones – peak power plants.

“While peak power remains more expensive per kilowatt-hour than base load, it is necessary to satisfy demand for electricity when it’s at its highest. Solar energy in particular can go some way towards meeting that demand as, in many countries; sunny afternoon hours more or less coincide with peak times for the load on the power grids.

If the competition between nuclear and renewable energy is to have any resolution it’s that it shouldn’t exist in the first place. Both are cleaner than hydrocarbon-based energy sources, and both have their applications that are meant not to compete with but to complement each other: nuclear has the capacity to efficiently supply baseload power; renewables can sometimes supplement demand for peak power– all to the benefit of economies that have mastered their use. – TradeArabia News Service