France struggles to cut down on nuclear power

By Rob BroombyBBC News, Paris

Continue reading the main story

The Fukushima disaster led many countries to rethink their view on nuclear energy. Germany plans to abandon it altogether, but French President Francois Hollande also wants to cut nuclear output sharply - by a third in 20 years. It's a big ask in a country that now relies on nuclear for 75% of its electricity.

If fully implemented, the pledge would force the closure of up to 20 of the country's 58 reactors according to Professor Laurence Tubiana a former government adviser who the president asked to facilitate a national debate, paving the way for what they call la transition energetique.

This would be a huge step, but Tubiana describes it as a "logical evolution".

France realised that Japan had survived economically when all its atomic power stations were shut down because of its diverse energy mix. In Japan, before the disaster, nuclear power delivered about 30% of the country's electricity, but France is hugely dependent not only on nuclear, but on a single generation of nuclear power stations.

It is vulnerable to a "generic risk", according to Tubiana, where a problem with one reactor could force them all offline for the fault to be fixed. This would cause chaos.

She says the 20 reactors closed in the "transition" could be replaced by renewable energy, which she says would maintain French energy independence and be both "stable and secure".

So far, however, the government has only earmarked one power station for closure - the ageing plant at Fessenheim on the German border - which prompts some to question the government's commitment to Hollande's promise.

The Fukushima disaster prompted Germany to plan the closure of its nuclear power plants by 2022

There is evidently reluctance in cabinet. Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg is on record as saying that Fessenheim will be the only nuclear power station to close.

On a visit to China in December he reassured his audience that nuclear energy was a "sector of the future" and would continue to contribute "at least 50%" of France's electricity output.

Another member of Hollande's Socialist Party, the MP Christian Bataille, says the plan to curb nuclear was hatched as a way of securing the backing of his Green coalition partners in parliament.

He describes nuclear power as the country's "only national energy source".

THRUST TOWARDS SOLAR ENERGY IS THE RIGHT STEP FOR ENERGY SECURITY OPTION FOR ONE AND ALL

Energy security through clean energy is much more than the necessity for mankind. In fact looking at the problems associated with all fuel based energy options, namely the global warming and health hazards, quest for clean energy has become the need of the hour to save our mother earth and its occupants. In this kind of a scenario and the finite quantum of all fuel resources one fails to understand as to why thrust towards clean renewable energy sources is languishing. 

Out of all clean renewable sources, solar energy occupies the pride of place for its large scale availability at almost all the places on our globe and above all the source is eternal and will last till humanity lives. The amount of energy falling on our globe is of the order of 174000 TWatts, a magnitude best understood by the fact that 1 hour of solar rays' energy is more than what mankind uses in a year. When this energy is responsible for lifting water from surface of sea to fall back down on the high mountains, drives ocean currents from tropics to poles, spins winds from pole to pole and power the green engine of life with guaranteed absolute safety, why it cannot be depended upon to provide energy security to all mankind on our globe. The powerful and mighty of this globe, the men who take pride in changing the fortunes of mankind certainly owe an explanation to the same mankind for guiding it to the brink of self destruction through their vested and motivated interests by resorting to all kind of energy security approaches likely to result in annihilation of life.
The irony of the whole game of providing energy security to the mankind on mother earth is that we are aiming at mastering more than complex and catastrophic nuclear sciences and technologies, from the finite fission energy to infinite fusion energy. It is something like an effort to reinvent wheel for the same fusion energy which has been bestowed upon mankind since ages in the form of solar energy and that too at a safe distance of millions of kilometers from earth with all the inbuilt safeties that man and his science cannot even dream of for the next thousands of years.It does not require any rocket science to conclude that we must spend all our time, energy, money and resources in harnessing what comes to us from nature and remove all small and inconsequential bottlenecks that are being talked about by those professing against the suitability of renewable energy sources for providing energy security. In fact thrust towards solar energy is the only right step for energy security option for one and all.

ENERGY SECURITY OPTIONS: A TALE OF NUCLEAR AND SOLAR POWER, THE TWO MAIN CONTENDING TECHNOLOGIES

Ever since the reality of finite quantum of all fuels fossil as well as non fossil ones has dawned on mankind, energy security has acquired utmost importance for all nations, developed and underdeveloped alike. The use of fossil fuels for majority of global energy needs has pushed mankind into the extremely serious problems of global warming and pollution related health hazards as a result of associated carbon gases and radioactivity which if not attended to on a war footing can endanger the very existence of mankind.

In the race for energy security options of the 21st century under the headings of clean infinite energy sources, following contenders emerge namely, the solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy and hydro energy. And surprisingly they all owe their existence and availability to sun and sun alone which is in fact the mother of all these energies. Choosing the most appropriate energy option for a nation must be on the basis of the following.

• First and foremost, the option must be free of pollution of carbon gases and radioactive pollution. The whole story and myth of nuclear energy being a pollution free energy stands busted in nuclear power at what cost.
• The source should be eternal so that science and technology has to work only on the improvements instead of fishing for new sources with passage of time.
• The option should be suitable for all applications, standalone, mini, micro and large scale and that too without any bearing on cost aspects of installation and power production.
• The option should have quick response capability and small gestation periods.
• The option should be simple and for best results should be realizable by keeping it simple.
• Maintenance costs should be low. 
• Not prone to catastrophic accidents  under any known or unknown circumstances.

The whole world has been debating on all available sources and out of nuclear and solar, the two main contending technologies, nuclear fails on all counts and it is solar that stands out. In spite of these bare facts, it is strange that our globe still has touts of nuclear power plants. The strong and viable case of solar as the best energy security option available to mankind does not need knowledge of rocket science but asks for an iota of common sense on the part of one and all controlling the fate of our planet.

ENERGY SECURITY: THE MAGIC OF SOLAR ENERGY FOR CHANDIGARH

Chandigarh with its controlled and uniform skyline and vast spaces of parks is potentially one of the most suitable cities to realize its energy security through the magic of solar energy. Recently the government of India has proposed to develop it as a "Solar City". Based on the analysis of potential for demand side measures along with that of supply side augmentation through renewable energy technologies, the following targets are proposed for Chandigarh in order to develop it as a “Solar City”. The concept of Solar Cities  is being taken up all over our globe as humanity is aware of deleterious effects of global warming and fast depletion of fossil fuels. The government of India has also come up with a plan to develop 60 solar cities, Chandigarh being one of them. Looking at the potential of solar energy in a planned city like Chandigarh the targets set are minuscule and a lot more can be done and achieved in this endeavor. The targets set in the master plan are mentioned in the table below.

          Targets for energy conservation, generation and greenhouse gas emission reduction

Through Solar Power Generation

 Energy Conservation                                 Reduction in present energy consumption
                                                               
                                                                  Short Term         Medium Term               Long Term
                                                                  (till 2012)           (till 2015)                      (till 2018)
1.1 Residential sector                                    10%                  15%                            20%
1.2 Commercial sector                                  10%                  15%                            20%
1.3 a Municipal sector                                   1.5%                 3.0%                           4%
        (Water pumping)
1.3 a Municipal sector                                   1.5%                 3.0%                           4%
        (Street lighting)                                    
 2. Coverage of solar water  heating systems  10%                  25%                           45%
(as a proportion of total heating demand
in residential and commercial sectors)

Solar Power Generation

3. Roof Top solar energy based                       2.5 MW          5.0 MW                    10.0 MW
   electricity generation
4. Large solar energy based                            3.0 MW          5.0 MW                     5.0 MW
    electricity generation at Landfill site
5. Large solar energy based                             5.0 MW          15.0 MW                  25.0 MW
   electricity generation at
   Patiyala ki Rao site

Greenhouse gas emission (GHG )
reduction (tCO2/annum)                               90973               214051                   214051

Chandigarh is a city with an area of about 110 Sq. Kms with an electricity demand of about 300 MW with major demand coming from residential and commercial sector like any urban conglomerate.Architectural controls with a uniform skyline with a design concept of row houses, commercial buildings, schools and offices in a vast majority of cases make it a juicy candidate for realizing full potential of solar power through individual and community/cooperative solar power generation. In fact the city can on its own meet more than 75% of its energy needs through a solar revolution utilizing all  roof tops and non usable waste lands. In the bargain a significant GHG reduction of about 1 million tCO2/annum  will be achieved. Add to it the benefits of small transmission infrastructure accompanied by low maintenance costs and losses and solar results in a win win solution for all times to come.

BENEFITS OF ENERGY SECURITY THROUGH CLEAN RENEWABLES

It is not for nothing that a large number of philosophers and analysts are raising their voice for achieving energy security on our globe through use of Renewable clean energy sources. The seeds of this idea were sowed as early as 1931 by none other than Thomas Alva Edison, the father of the electricity revolution.

Up to the nineties of the last century this idea appeared to be a fantasy of some philosophical brains and was almost dubbed as Utopian by the technologists and analysts working in the field of energy. With the dawning of the fact that all fuel reserves are finite and mankind will run out of them sooner than later,the researches and technologies started gathering steam so much so that today wise men have started talking of energy security through 100% renewable clean energies as early as 2030.

Why so much of concern for the route to energy security? The switch over to clean renewable energy sources is beneficial on all fronts.

• The first and the foremost is the fact that the very existence of earth as a planet of life is in danger because of man's quest to harness more and more comforts for himself through energy. This is quite obvious when we sift through the data on global warming which is on one hand resulting in more and more pressures on energy requirements and on the other resulting in a receding snowline and depleting water tables. In fact the policies on energy security are leading to disturbances in the natural food chain, carbon cycle, hydrology or water cycle and are taking mankind to a path of self destruction. All clean renewable energy sources contribute little to no global warming emissions during all life cycle activity of manufacturing, installation, operation and maintenance, and dismantling and decommissioning. Surprisingly the much touted clean nuclear power  results in up to 25 times more carbon emissions than wind energy, when reactor construction and uranium refining and transport are considered.
• The next major benefit of clean renewable energy technologies is improved public health and environment quality resulting in lesser load and expenditure on health services. Additionally the overall water requirements of the society will also be reduced drastically. They reduce deaths due to air pollution
• Solar, wind, tide etc are vast, inexhaustible and eternal sources of energy and harnessing them for energy security could easily qualify to be invention of the human civilization,  far too bigger and revolutionizing than the invention of wheel perhaps.
• Clean renewable energy technologies are labour intensive and provide far more jobs per KWatt than the heavily mechanized and automated technologies based on all types of fuels.
• The energy from renewable sources has traversed its path from birth to infancy to childhood and have become viable and competitive  with conventional energy sources. The prices will keep on coming down as these technologies graduate from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. And mark my words, the old age and death are never going to come! So with clean renewables we are in for an era of stable energy prices.
• Over and above all, the two hottest technologies i.e. wind and solar provide far too safe, reliable and resilient power generation system because of their suitability in standalone, micro, mini and large scale requirements and intrinsic nature of being modular. They are less prone to large scale failures in the event of extreme weather conditions and calamities such as storms as is borne by the facts emerging after Hurricane Sandy 2012. Similarly even in the eventuality of a drought they will keep on working because of negligible water requirements for their functioning.
• Energy sources have been one of the biggest bone of contention among nations and have wrought in many a wars and political manipulations leading to global upheavals. Since wind and solar are available with all nations in reasonably abundant quantities enough to match their requirements, may be with one major bone of contention removed, we will see a peaceful and tension free world in the coming years. 

INDIA'S ENERGY SECURITY : RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

It was heartening to note that Indian government has finally seen  the reality of clean green energy and this was emphasized by none other than the Indian premier. While speaking at the fourth clean energy ministerial Indian Prime Minister pitches for subsidy to energize clean energy in the context of his opinion on the cost aspects of  power from new renewable energy sources in comparison to conventional fuel based energy sources. His assertions derive strength from the feed back from his experts which he has faithfully echoed . But as the head of the government of one billion plus and a visionary trying to catapult Indian march to prosperity he must understand that all scientific and technology experts also resist change just as any normal human being and additionally they tend to defend their expertise and technology for their own benefit and the benefit of their large following of scientists and technologists. Additionally he should have drawn his own conclusions in the light of the fact that so many global leaders and visionaries have embraced the renewable energy sources in a big way for ultimate energy security of their respective countries.

India is uniquely placed in this quest of energy security as it doesn't have to think that earlier investments will go down the drain as it has barely started its march towards this goal and our yearly addition requirements are much more than the replacement requirements of the developed world. Energy security through renewables is the only way ahead if India has to keep its date with the the great Indian dream of becoming world leaders.

India must think big and India must think with vision and far sight. Let India not follow the beaten path of energy requirement fulfillment as it came to mankind with the advancements of science, technology and material development. India must jump and skip some of the technologies to arrive at the ultimate goal of energy security. Gone are the days when big was beautiful and economic in Energy sector. Solar and wind power have the potential of revolutionizing this concept with their suitability and cost effectiveness in standalone, micro, mini and large grids. In the light of the fact that solar and wind are comparable if not cheaper when an all inclusive cost comparison including transmission /distribution losses and costs, logistics of raw materials, plant and grid maintenance and costs for reducing pollution and fighting global warming is made for cost to the consumer. Solar and wind power and are the only viable answers to the requirement of Energy Security not only for India but for almost all nations on our globe.

INDIA DOES NOT NEED NUCLEAR POWER FOR ENERGY SECURITY

I was more than surprised when the Indian prime minister said, "India needs enlightenment on nuclear power. " Enlightenment at what cost and for what for. First of all it is not understood why a nation so richly bestowed with solar, wind and hydro power potential should look towards nuclear technology, a technology which has to be bought at sellers terms and conditions, a fuel which has to be imported, a power plant which will always be a potential ticking catastrophic bomb and a technology where no solutions have emerged for the dismantling of old plants and disposal of spent fuel, for its energy security. Apart from all this when a holistic view is taken of all the technologies in the race, India will lose a god sent opportunity to fulfill its dream of emerging as a global leader in power engineering and subsequently an economic superpower with in a short period of time if it does not join the race of developing nascent renewal energy technologies and where the nation will be self reliant from the very beginning.

What is required is sincerity and honesty of purpose and doing away with concepts of the classical power engineering i.e. producing electricity in mega and ultra mega power plants and incurring huge costs on transmission infrastructure as well as huge losses during transmission. Standalone applications, micro and mini grids should be the order of the day. Use onsite energy source ie solar and wind and on site consumption of power for may be 90% of the requirements and strengthen energy storage  to tide over the intermittency problem associated with these sources.This should be the way forward for a nation which has to have an additional power capacity of about 0.7 million mega watts in the next decade or so to fulfill the aspirations of its citizens

ENERGY SECURITY THROUGH RENEWABLES: THE ONLY WAY AHEAD

The quest for Energy Security has been the endeavour of mankind from times immemorial. The growth and prosperity of nations has revolved around their capacity to harness natural resources in the best possible manner even in pre industrial revolution era.It all started with concept of use of manual energy from humans and animals. Then mankind started using the force of flowing water ( Kinetic Energy ). Post industrial revolution, conversion of one form of energy to another and inventions of steam engine, petrol engine, electricity generators etc. changed the entire scenario. Fossil fuels and hydroelectric potential became synonymous with energy security. Then came the taming of the atom and nuclear power  was considered to be the ultimate word in energy security. It was by about 1980, after the Three Mile Island accident in USA nuclear power plants started losing their sheen. So much so that after Chernobyl and recent Fukushima Daichi disaster the nuclear power route to energy security because of nuclear energy safety concerns has been abandoned by many advanced countries and phasing out of existing plants is underway. Energy from the fossil fuels has its own problems of huge carbon dioxide emissions which are a big contributor to global warming which is threatening the very existence of mankind on this globe. Besides the fossil fuel reserves are finite and at best can last for another seventy years or so for commercial exploitation. Needless to emphasize that carbon is precious and needs to be saved for future generations in view of futuristic requirements of mankind.

The enormity and eternity of renewable energy sources like solar, wind, ocean waves was always known to mankind and the thrust towards renewable energy sources is languishing because of vested interests of nuclear club nations and powerful industry lobbies who have spent billions and billions on researches, technology development and required manufacturing infrastructure in the fields of power plant engineering, transmission and distribution  for fossil fuel and nuclear fuel based power plants which seems to be redundant in the light of  majority of the electricity requirements of any country bestowed with very large solar, wind and tidal energy potential.

Deciding on renewable sources for energy security by any country is a win win situation for all times to come because of the following:

• Available in huge quantities with almost all nations much in excess of even their future requirements implying thereby that the user nations don't have to buy it from anywhere.
• Available on the site where electricity is needed or is to be employed with no additional fuel transportation costs and need for related infrastructure. 
• The availability is eternal and not finite as is the case with fuel based sources.
• The technology of harnessing energy from these sources is suitable for standalone, micro,mini and even large grid applications with no bearing on its cost because of scale and size of operation.
• Clean energy with no contribution to much worrying issue of global warming.
• No large scale impact of natural disasters like hurricane Sandy in USA and grid failures witnessed this year in India,  on the supply of power.
• Immunity against terrorist strike on the plant or accidents and catastrophe resulting thereof.
• Immunity against rising fuel costs as global reserves of all fuels are getting depleted at at a fast pace.
• Quick response capability instead of long gestation periods, five to seven years for thermal power plants and up to twenty years for nuclear plants which are normally witnessed. Imagine the compounding effect of investments in renewable energy technologies as benefits start accruing in proportion to the investments just after say six months from the day of start instead of waiting for the returns till the installation and commissioning of the plant takes place may be after five, ten or fifteen years.
• And above all, invest as per your present demand and requirement and keep on adding as the requirement grows without prejudicing earlier investments as the technologies are totally modular.

Some vested interests who want to delay the march of humanity to renewable energy sources and those who refuse to see the ultimate reality of energy security  point out that the intermittence  of  supply of energy from these sources as also the requirements of large land footprints are the two major stumbling blocks for abandoning fuel based power plants in favour of solar and wind energy. The whole world has realised the enormous potential of roof top solar and available unused government and community lands. The problem of intermittence is hardly a problem in the light of science and technology knowledge available to mankind. If modern day science has found ways and means to produce atomic energy, controlling natural forces in a big way, there is simply no reason it cannot find solution to intermittence through energy storage or hybridization. Old classical concepts of having large power plants and national grids have to give way to newer concepts keeping in mind the flexibility, modular nature and the economics of power generation from solar and wind energy. In any case this is bound to happen. Now or after seven decades is the question, when we run out of all fuels, fossil or nuclear. The wisdom says we do it right now by focusing on renewable sources with all our might for the simple reason that researches in these fields for improving efficiency and addressing problems of energy storage are going to be value additive for all times to come.As it is some men with wisdom and far sight are talking about 'Wind- Solar- Storage could power 99.9% Grid by 2030.

WHY THRUST TOWARDS RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES IS LANGUISHING

This is what Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor who gave this world electricity and electric bulb thought about the potential of solar, wind and tidal energy way back in 1931. Simultaneously he had a premonition that the human race would commit the folly of waiting for the drying up of all our fossil fuel resources before tackling the scientific and technological problems associated with harnessing of renewable energy.
There are others like George Porter, Ralph Nader and Joseph A. Tainter who gave their own assessment for this delay and how right they have been.


I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun’s energy… If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.
George Porter, an English chemist (1973).

The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.~ Ralph Nader, an American consumer activist and politician (1980).

Any change from the long established practices and technologies are resisted by cartels of nations,industries and even the technocrat lobbies for reasons of self interest and fear of losing on their monopolies and importance. This is why the nuclear nations are strongly touting for nuclear energy in spite of the universally known fact that a nuclear power plant is a ticking catastrophic bomb and has massive problems associated with disposal of wastes, dismantling of old plants, danger of nuclear fuels passing into the hands of terrorists and what not. Joseph A. Tainter, an American anthropologist has very aptly summed this in the following lines.

…a voluntary change to solar energy and green fuels, energy-conserving technologies, and less overall consumption… is a utopian alternative that… will come about only if severe, prolonged hardship in industrial nations makes it attractive, and if economic growth and consumerism can be removed from the realm of ideology.

The two main problems i.e. the requirement of large tracts of land and energy storage when renewable energy sources are to be employed are just excuses by vested interests to avoid them for the time being. 

“Opportunities to install renewable energy systems on vacant properties can be found in every community,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “Tapping sun and wind power at brownfield sites, rooftops, parking lots, and abandoned land could provide untapped gigawatts of clean energy.”

Similarly, the requirement and problem of energy storage is not as big as is being made out. First of all, about 50% of power requirements are during day time, similarly large quantities are required in stand alone applications, mini and micro grids. All solutions lie in combining and hybridization of technologies. In fact the developed world is guilty of telling us how renewables cannot be used for providing energy security to  this world  instead of how they can be used. Where there is a will, there is a way.The day politicians, scientists and technologists set their sights on these inexhaustible sources, nothing else will be required for energy security.

ENERGY SECURITY THROUGH NUCLEAR POWER : A BANE OR A BOON FOR HUMANITY

The story of  immense energy locked up in an atom and its release during fission and fusion processes is about seventy year old and has been a talk of thinkers, philosophers, scientists and leaders for use in  military, energy and medicine fields. In the early second half of the last century, we were given to understand that the catastrophic effects were associated only with the military application of nuclear bombs and if we allowed science to develop as a good servant instead of its being the master, nuclear sciences could well be the game changer for humanity for all times to come. Slowly the overall deleterious concerns of playing with the nuclear sciences came to light. The concept of energy security through nuclear power emerged as a bane  rather than a boon to the humanity. The rhetoric of a few world leaders, a few powerful lobbies and  industrial cartels with vested interests and ulterior motives not withstanding. "I do not know with what weapons the third world war will be fought but the fourth world war will definitely be fought with bows and arrows" These ominous words from none other than A. Einstein, the man behind the concept of nuclear energy, though said in the context of an atom bomb hold equally well for mankind's efforts to utilise this energy for peaceful uses, the much touted nuclear power. We have to understand that controlling such an enormous energy giving reaction with our limited knowledge of nuclear physics, mechanical sciences, material sciences, causes of accidents along with the uncertainties of nature and allied phenomena  with 100% surety is nothing but a mirage. It will only be prudent on the part of mankind not to sit on thousands of these ticking catastrophic bombs of self annihilation just for the sake of energy security and that too for the coming few decades ( In the light of limited availability of nuclear fuels ), particularly when our planet has been bestowed with eternal and absolutely safe energy sources like sun and wind. If we are destined to fall back upon the use of renewable energy sources for all our energy needs after six or seven decades, is it not worthwhile to do it right now and be done away with the risk of destruction of mankind.

NUCLEAR FUELS ARE A CURSE ON HUMANITY

Today Energy security is the topmost priority requirement of the mankind and how to achieve this is the hottest topic of debate in all countries on our globe. While everybody seems to agree  to the idea of having clean energy so that global warming is controlled as a first step and subsequently reversed, a fierce battle is going on about the route to be adopted for this clean energy. The candidates for clean energy are nuclear, and renewable energy sources like hydro, solar, wind, ocean, geothermal etc. etc.. The major criterion for  any clean energy are 

• Involvement of clean and safe processes for making available energy source at the power plant
• Power producing  process to be safe, least accident prone and incapable of being catastrophic under any conditions
• Wastes and by products resulting from the process should also be safe and clean

It does not require rocket science to understand that all renewable energy sources measure themselves adorably when subjected to the rigours of all criterion postulates mentioned above but can we say the same about nuclear energy. The answer is a big emphatic no to all the three criterion.

Let us now examine the story of energy from nuclear power plants rigorously.

• Nuclear fuel mining: The troubles start right from the stage of the mining of uranium ores to their crushing, leaching to make what is known as natural Uranium. The miners are subjected to toxic effects and the mines are left with toxicity on the surface which otherwise was lying dormant deep under the surface of earth.Uranium mining is a very inefficient process and generates vast amounts of toxic waste.In fact uranium mine tailings leave vast amounts of toxicity.
• Fuel enrichment: Natural Uranium is about 99.27% of U-238 and 0.72% of U-235, the fissile isotope which is used for nuclear reactors of power plants and nuclear weapons. What is left behind is called depleted uranium ( DU ) containing about 0.2 to 0.4% U-235 and the balance U-238. DU has a density of 19.1 g/cc and is used for defensive armour and armour piercing projectiles as also the so called Dirty Bombs. DU contamination occurs when these products are employed during a war and produces lingering toxic effects on humans and land area.
• Nuclear power production: Apart from the ever imminent lurking danger  of  a catastrophic  accident, as probability theory cannot be relied upon for assessing the safety of a nuclear power plant in the light of big chunks of deficiencies in our knowledge of nuclear physics, mechanical sciences, material manufacture and subsequent behaviour in different conditions and the vagaries and severity of natural calamities and disasters. Also we have to understand that technology can never be a guarantee to safety.
• Wastes and by products: The spent fuel and its disposal are the biggest cause of concern for the humanity and even though the world has been producing nuclear power for well over fifty years, no viable solution has been found. Solutions to the problem of managing Nuclear waste and its safe custody are the topics that are bothering the strongest exponents of nuclear power for the costs involved and effectiveness of these solutions.

ENERGY SECURITY VIEWPOINT

Energy security is the most pressing need of all the nations on this globe and the debate on various options available has been going on for the last few decades. Any energy source that qualifies as the ideal viable energy security option must fulfill the following conditions.

• The first and foremost requirement of a viable energy security solution is that it should be a clean source  capable of producing energy in a clean manner without any contribution to the biggest worry of  global warming.
•  The source must be eternal and have the capacity to last for thousands of years so that the researches and technology development efforts can lead to an eternally valid solution like the invention of wheel. 
• All processes involved in utilising an energy source for producing energy right from mineral stage to fuel extraction, power plant wastes and spent fuel disposal should be absolutely safe for humanity. In addition there should be zero chance of catastrophic accidents.

A quick simple analysis ( requiring no rocket science knowledge ) of all available energy sources within the framework of conditions cited above leads to the renewable energy sources as the only answer to the problem of energy security. The global efforts, time, money and resources need not be spent in a zigzag haphazard manner to cater to the whims, fancies and vested interests of leaders, industry cartels and powerful lobbies. The wisdom of humanity and ultimate welfare lies in taking the shortest straightforward route to taming of nature's gifts of sun, wind, ocean, river and geothermal energies for its energy security.

Ending India’s Massive Power Grid Outages

 By 3p Guest Author | September 20th, 2012 

World’s Biggest Blackout – Image courtesy National Post, Canada

By Darshan Goswami, M.S., P.E.

On July 30th and 31st, the world’s largest blackout – The Great Indian Outage, stretching from New Delhi to Kolkata – occurred.  This blackout caused by northern power grid failure left nearly 700 million people – twice the population of the U.S. – without electricity.  A grid failure of this magnitude has thrown light on the massive demand for power in a country and its struggle to generate a much-needed power supply.

India aims to expand its power-generation capacity by 44 percent over the next five years. In June, the country’s power generation fell short by 5.8 percent against a peak-hour demand for 128 gigawatts, according to government data. India is divided into five regional grids, which are all interconnected, except for the southern grid. All the grids are being run by Power Grid, which operates more than 100,000 kilometers of electricity transmission lines.

Serious concerns have been once again raised about the country’s growing infrastructure and inability to meet its energy needs.  Government officials have concluded, “The grid failed because of the overloading of power,” and contend that “many states” try to take more power than they are allotted from the grid.

The country’s lack of energy security is a major constraint to its capacity to generate power.  The slow pace of tariff reforms is hindering infrastructure investment at the state level in most parts of the country.  The centralized model of power generation, transmission and distribution is growing more and more costly to maintain at current levels to meet increasing energy needs.  The blackout and shortage of power are hampering India’s economic growth and its capacity for growth.

So what can the world’s biggest democracy do to help eliminate such wide-sweeping outages in the future? Government should assess how best to address the power needs to meet the future growth and prevent such massive power failures. India’s power blackout is an opportunity for developing sustainable energy.  India urgently needs to develop and deploy large-scale renewable energy to end its power grid outages. I have addressed these concerns in my presentation, Renewable Energy Solutions For India – A Strategic Development Plan, and in the following published papers:  How Concentrated Solar Power Can Meet India’s Future Power Needs, Solar Farming Potential in India, How To Empower India With Big Solar Energy Plans, and Full version: India’s Solar Sunrise – Renewable Energy Focus.

For economic as well as environmental reasons, India needs to shift to non-polluting renewable sources of energy. Renewable energy is the most attractive investment because it will provide long-term economic growth for India. Decentralized off-grid renewable distributed generation sources like solar, wind, hydro, biomass, biogas, geothermal, hydrogen energy and fuel cells are the answers. These sources have the advantage of empowering people at the grassroots level and utilize distribution and transmission methods with little to no emissions. India should consider developing targets for electrification that include renewable off-grid options and/or renewable powered mini-grids. This will take a substantial electrical load off the existing power grid and also reduce the need for installing additional transmission and distribution systems.

ENERGY SECURITY OPTIONS : GLOBAL TRENDS

There is a big debate going on regarding energy security options available to mankind and it has gained momentum in the light Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and global warming as a result of greenhouse gases produced by human activity such as deforestation and fossil fuel burning. The route taken by any country is going to be governed by mineral resources under its soil, available renewable energy resources, technologies available to it, the far sight and wisdom of its polity and people. A close look at the global trends in the field of energy additions can be of great help in understanding the right and wrong of available energy security options like power from coal, oil and gas, nuclear power, power from renewables like solar, wind, hydro,  geothermal, ocean and biomass. 

German story: 

• German nation has decided not to have any new nuclear plant and abandoned nuclear energy option for ever.An accelerated phasing out of existing nuclear power plants is taken up to ensure that Germany will be free of nuclear power by 2022.
• Solar and wind energy programmes are being pushed at a feverish pace so much so that solar power production has risen to 22GW per hour , a staggering 50% addition to last year's production. Solar is still the third largest source of renewable electricity this year right behind wind power and power produced from biomass. 
• Germany is investing half a trillion dollars to build huge Desertec Plan to to settle its energy security requirements for all times to come.

Japanese Story:

• Thermal Power and Nuclear power has been the mainstay of energy requirements from 1960 onwards accounting for 65% and 25 % respectively but after Fukushima Daiichi disaster all the nuclear plants have been closed for safety reviews and strong  public outcry has been growing for no to nuclear power.The Japanese government also seems to be inclined to phasing out of all nuclear plants. 
• In its quest of providing energy security to the nation, Japan with its limited renewable energy resources is counting on Mongolia for wind power and is investing heavily in Sahara desert solar power potential.

Chinese Story:

• China is targeting 21 GW of solar, 100 GW of wind and 13 GW of biomass power capacity by 2015. Further on it has endorsed a plan to step up to an installed capacity of 50 GW of solar power, 200 GW of wind power and 30 GW of biomass power by 2020.
• Since it has massive military ambitions to be the topmost global power it aims to have 40 GW of nuclear power capacity by 2015 and about 60-70 GW by 2020.The programme seems to be guided by military ambitions alone.

US Story: 

• USA one of the biggest propagator of nuclear energy for energy security option has only 19.66% of its electricity from nuclear energy and equally surprising is the fact that no new additions have been made to this much touted solution since the 3 mile accident in 1979. Also more than 50% of the Americans oppose any additions to country's nuclear energy as an energy security option.
• In 2011 the additions in wind and solar energy were 6.7 GW and >1 GW respectively. The total installed renewable capacity being 93 GW second only to China.
• Recently US has started envisaging ultra large scale solar power projects like the one for New York with a capacity of 2 GW.

These are just a few examples of the thought process of the major economic powers of the world. Since Germany and Japan are not inclined to jump onto the band wagon of nuclear weapon states they are purely guided by what is best for their country and its citizenry. Though China has very strong military super power ambitions, the fact that it still seems to be leading in the race to embracing renewables speaks volumes for the unmatched advantages of these technologies in the immediate future and for centuries to come. USA's actions and performance don't match its publicly declared love for nuclear energy option for long term energy security.

Energy Security - Some Guiding Principles

Every nation on this globe is clamouring to find a solution to the problem of energy security and there cannot be a universal solution for every country. The solution has to be country specific depending upon the availability of energy source reserves and its aspirations of becoming only prosperous or catapulting itself to a new economic superpower.

• Energy sources such as coal, oil, gas, uranium, solar energy, wind and hydroelectric potential etc. etc. and a solution has to be based on the right kind of mix of these energies. A country that does not have abundant coal or oil reserves or Uranium fuel cannot and should not base its energy security around power from these as it will always be exposed to economic and political blackmail.
• Every country must aim at making use of its own technology strengths in the first place and look for solutions which will have least dependence on the technology provider for plant operation, repair, maintenance, fuel replacements and ultimately replacement capacities.
• No environmental hazard, no catastrophical accident hazard, no extraordinary security provisions against theft, terrorist attack and blackmail, no major issues like waste disposal and dismantling of old plants.
• The source reservoir should preferably be unlimited and there for all times to come.

Arab world has gained prosperity but is nowhere near to the status of an economic superpower. At best it can be said to be the super consumer of technology products of western world and will keep on sustaining the superpower status of these countries. The next wave of developmental economic activity on this globe is likely to take place in poor African and Asian countries who will realise their dreams on the strength of being rich in fuel and other natural resources. These countries are likely to be denied nuclear power and coal based power additions are likely to be curtailed because of carbon emissions. So the countries strong in power technologies from all renewable energy sources are going to gain tremendously.

Indian Energy security - the next gen growth engine

With an enormous requirement of about 6-7 lakh MW of additional power in the next about 2 decades to cater for the country's energy security, the Indian energy security could easily be the next gen growth engine and the route adopted to realise this security could lead to the status of economic super power provided the polity and the government take nationalistic decisions without getting cowed down by the economic and political power of the advanced western countries. In this highly competitive world no country is a well wisher of any other country. Every body is looking after its own economic benefit first, the other may gain as a by product. India and for that matter no country that has a potential of jeopardising the economic super power status of advanced countries in any field of economic activity has to be doubly careful for the direct and indirect strings attached, visible or hidden to any  help that is being promised. Giving technologies to smaller countries like Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand etc. that too in inconsequential fields of garment, apparel, shoe making industry, home appliances, computer hardware,electronics and auto mobile ancillaries to save on their own manufacturing costs. The small population of these countries could be easily elevated beyond the poverty levels and  see some benefits of industrialisation and prosperity accruing to them.

We have been witness to the horrendous effects of dependence and reliance on the technology and consumable resources in all walks of life, energy and power generation being no exceptions. We have seen the effect of cartelisation by the oil producers who have made full use of increased global demand by increasing the prices of oil many many folds. In the last decade India tried to depend on imported coal for its power generation requirements and coal prices have been doubled up by the exporting countries without even resorting to any cartelisation. Imagine what will happen if these countries also form an OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) like body to squeeze maximum benefits out of their natural resources.Why is India forgetting its own old experiences of nuclear power plants. India had sunk in a lot of money in nuclear power plants during seventies and eighties of twentieth century but could never run them efficiently ( so much so even today we are running them at 50% of the installed capacity ) because of consumable and critical technology denials by the same countries who are now claiming to be willing to help India out with nuclear power stations. What are the safeguards against the same story not being repeated again either through denial or asking for exorbitant prices for consumables and critical components. Incidentally India is even now being denied  research tools that are available with some of their own universities even. In such a backdrop Is Nuclear Power Option a Wise Option or A Fraud on the Nation .In any case Indian Energy Security, through nuclear power route is neither the next gen growth engine nor the means to attain economic super power status for the country. It is definitely the route to maintaining the economic super power status of western world by letting them fleece an aspiring India through sale of defunct and obsolete technology which is out of sync with realities of twenty first century and in the process building up their strengths in the various fields of renewable energy to harness the economic prowess of eternal in situ available energies.In fact they want to make best use of the huge opportunity that exists in an energy starved nation of 1 billion plus. Can Indian politicians and government make full use of this colossus opportunity of becoming global leaders and an economic super power knocking at their doors and not waste it in raising the prosperity level of its masses by a notch or two.

Renewable energy is the answer for all futuristic Energy security not only of India but of entire world and that is why the countries with vision like Germany, Japan etc. are bent upon phasing out nuclear power option at a rather rapid pace and adding up solar at a feverish pace..The yearly additions of renewable energy particularly of solar and wind energy are growing exponentially in spite of fossil fuel and nuclear energy cartels trying their best with powerful misinformation campaigns advocating their importance for global energy security. The reasons can be summed up as follows:

• No deleterious effects on environment and thus ability to contribute in reducing global warming in the short run and taking it back to early twentieth century level in the long run.
• In situ availability
• Eternal availability in comparison to limited availability of all fuels.
• Suitability for standalone requirements as also micro,mini and large grid systems requirements.
• Immunity against inflation and other kind of price escalations as far as energy from the source is concerned.
• No infra and logistics spends required to gain access at the power plant site as is required in case of all fuels.
• With passage of time, power produced by renewable energy sources is only going to be cheaper and better through researches in the fields of better energy conversion, hybridisation, storage etc.

It is time to leave the beaten path and catapult Indian energy security effort to renewable and renewable energy sources alone to make best use of the opportunity window provided by enormous requirements of this energy starved nation of 1 billion plus to realise the dream of energy security in a reasonable time frame.

ENERGY SECURITY : INDIAN SOLUTION

Energy security is the key concern with all nations whether developed, developing or under developed in the light of the fact because of following.

• Energy needs are growing day by day.
• Amongst conventional energy sources viz Hydro potential is limited all over  world though it is an absolutely clean source of energy. Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Energy have a limited availability, may be for another five to six decades and have major associated problems.( Environmental in case of fossil fuel based energy and devastating, catastrophic long persisting accident risks in case of nuclear energy)

It is therefore mandatory for the mankind to seek energy security from renewable sources like hydro, solar, wind, tides and geothermal which are clean and almost eternal. Since every nation is uniquely placed with respect to availability of these sources on its soil, energy security solution will also be different for each nation and will be country centric. India cannot blindly follow what US, Germany, Japan and others are doing. It has to devise its own strategy for adopting the right mix of various renewable energies depending on their availabilities region wise.

• For north India comprising of Indo Gangetic plain and covering Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar  Pradesh,  Uttrakhand,  Bihar,  Bengal etc. energy security  solution  with a mix of hydro, solar and wind power is within the realm of possibility for per capita power consumption equal to that of advanced western nations.
• For North East the solution lies totally in the use of hydro electric potential of the region.
• Coastal India comprising of Orissa, Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa etc. can rely totally on hydro and wind energy for energy security solution.
• Central India along with Rajsthan and Gujerat should harness all their solar and wind energy potential for an eternal solution to their energy security.

National Grid

Since the transmission and distribution losses of 35-40% are a big drain on power production and cost an out of the box solution requiring minimal transmission will be an enormous asset in building an energy security solution. This is possible only through having small power production centres. Incidentally such requirements can easily be met with use of on site solar and wind power generation without compromising on the capital cost, production cost or efficiency of power generation in any way.The grid application can be limited to major hydroelectric power sources and Thar Desert solar power ultra ultra mega power generation hub for the use of railways and big cities which already have and are likely to have metro rail in future..

ENERGY SECURITY IN INDIA : SOLAR AND WIND POWER

Whenever one talks of solar and wind energy options for achieving energy security, a lot of fuss is created over the capital cost and power generation cost of these alternates. It is always implied that huge power producing hubs using these energy sources will be part of a large grid. For a meaningful comparison solar and wind energy has to be evaluated on the basis of a standalone onsite concept applied on a village level which is their forte. This concept does away with the requirements of a grid. 

By way of example let us take a village of about 1000 households with a population of 5000. For a per capita consumption of 2000 kwh annually purely for domestic usage, 10000000 kwh or 10000mwh are required which translates into a power generation requirement of less than 1mw assuming constant loads for 24 hours all 365 days of a year. Keeping in view the vagaries of demand within 24 hours of a day, 5mw generator of wind and solar power each will more than suffice for all kind of requirements.This will require a land area of about 50 acres which every village has in the form of SHAMLAT land ( A piece of land owned by a village collectively for common use of the village ).

• The beauty of solar and wind power generators is that the power generation cost of 1mw is the same as that of 10mw or more in the same way as the traction cost of a vehicle remains the same whether we have one vehicle or more. The scale of production of vehicles lowers the cost of vehicle but cost of producing 1BHP of traction power remains the same.The scale of production will reduce the cost of solar panels or wind turbines but will not effect the cost of energy production.
• Solar and wind power when used onsite standalone mode does away with the capital cost requirements of a grid as also the major amount of 35-40% transmission and distribution losses and the overall cost becomes close to all kinds of power generators in use.

Besides being an attractive power generation option because of versatility in terms of vagaries of on site requirements depending upon size of households conglomerate, ability to be upgraded with annual  demand  increases and incurring costs as per the availability of funds keeping smallest village as a viable unit, solar and wind power option offers following additional advantages of far reaching importance to the country.

• As there is no requirement of hauling of fuels from mines to generation sites,  no additional load on road and rail transport infrastructure for production of power.
• No additions to global warming
• The nation will be free from any catastrophe through ever lingering possibility of nuclear plant accidents.
• No chance of blackmail by fuel suppliers.

New industrial hubs and Special Economic Zones can also meet their power requirements through a combination of solar, wind and emergency switch-over diesel based power. An integrated corridor of land all round will accommodate a ring road, ring railway for to and fro logistics requirements of men and material and solar panels and wind turbines for electricity generation.

INDIAN QUEST FOR ENERGY SECURITY: A CORRECT PERSPECTIVE

EAS  SARMA

As appeared in
tHE SUNDAY TRIBUNE, CHANDIGARH

fEBRUARY 26,2012

ON THE RECORD BY
SURESH DHARUR

The ‘foreign hand’ guides govt more than the people

ACTIVISTS are up in arms against the government for pursuing the nuclear energy option, “disregarding public concerns”. The former Union Energy Secretary and a leading environmentalist EAS Sarma rubbishes talk of “foreign hand” behind the public protests. The retired IAS official spoke at length on different aspects of energy security.

The Prime Minister has blamed NGOs for engineering protests against Kudankulam nuclear plant. What is your response?

The Prime Minister’s statement was ill-advised, devoid of a realistic appreciation of the ground realities and lacked appreciation of genuine public concern over the potential dangers of nuclear technology, as reflected by the catastrophic explosions in the reactors at Three Mile Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima 2011. It amounts to belittling the voice of dissent in a democracy like ours.

The “foreign hand” argument applies more to the government than to the people. Is it not the foreign hand that forced the UPA government to push through the Indo-US nuclear deal to serve the commercial interests of another country rather than promoting self-reliance? Has not the country been pushed into a permanent state of dependence on imported nuclear reactors and imported fuel for no compelling reason?

Has the government followed any competitive bidding procedure for deciding the reactor suppliers for Jaitapur, Kovvada and the other nuclear power complexes? Has this not imposed an undue cost burden on the electricity consumers of the country? Is it not the foreign hand that compelled the government to pass the civil nuclear liability law to shift the burden of accident liability from the foreign reactorsuppliers to the tax payers in India ?

What safety issues do you think the government needs to addres?

The PMO had assured that safety audits and action taken on existing plants will be placed in the public domain. More than nine months have lapsed and yet DAE/ NPCIL have remained secretive. DAE should take people into confidence. It should order risk analysis studies, assuming human and mechanical failures, as well as seismic events. In the Deccan plateau, which was considered stable, we had the Koyna disaster and the Latur earthquake, in which thousands lost their lives and homes. Our knowledge of the impact of low-intensity radioactive exposure is also incomplete.

Can we afford to abandon the nuclear route to meet our power needs?

It is a fallacious argument put forward by energy illiterates. A 10 per cent saving in Transmission and Distribution losses in India through additional investment on T&D network will save 1,56,000 MW of capacity, which is more than 2.5 times of the 60,030MW of nuclear capacity projected up to 2030-31 in the Integrated Energy Policy (IEP) report of the Planning Commission. If a 20 per cent efficiency improvement is realised in our lighting devices, which is within the domain of possibility, we can similarly do away with most of the nuclear capacity addition planned.

What alternative scenarios do you propose?

Germany, where 26 per cent of electricity comes from nuclear sources, has decided to do away with it in a decade and shift to solar and other renewable sources. In India, hardly 2.5 per cent of electricity comes from nuclear. We have much more of solar insolation and sources of renewable energy.

What ails our energy policy?

Our energy policy should be based on demand management, efficiency improvements and renewables as the first priorities. When I talk of demand management, I talk of changes in urban planning, transport planning, building architecture and so on. For example, a tonne-km of freight traffic requires seven times of oil products by road compared to rail. We therefore ought to think of “golden quadrilaterals” of rail rather than highways. Similarly, one passenger-km of passenger traffic in a city based on cars and two-wheelers consumes twice the oil consumed by buses.

NUCLEAR ENERGY in INDIA: IS IT A WISE OPTION

Indian nation is standing on the crossroads to find an answer to the Energy Security of the country which is effective, long lasting, safe with no chance of a catastrophic accident, environment friendly and totally dependent upon Indian Natural Resources. The answer to energy security definitely lies in  a combination of the clean energy technologies and that too in the renewable ones. Luckily India is blessed with an abundance of solar, wind and Hydroelectric potential sufficient  to take care of its energy needs even when per capita energy consumption is raised to the level of advanced western nations. In a country with such a favourable scenario for renewable energy sources, basing our energy security on nuclear energy reeks of nothing else but  hidden agenda of vested interests. The question "NUCLEAR ENERGY in INDIA: IS IT A WISE OPTION" cannot stand the scrutiny of even the elementary wisdom. The rulers of the country should rise above their petty politics, narrow vision and act as statesmen with a vision beyond thirty years when most of the fuel resources of this world, be it coal, oil or Uranium will all dry up to a level beyond commercial exploitation and all humanity on this globe will be forced to look towards eternal renewable energy sources only.

Few questions that need to be probed

1. The cost of nuclear energy including capital cost, fuel cost, running cost, arrangements for stopping theft and pilferage of nuclear material, safety against terrorist groups, full arrangements for full compensation in case of a blow out for immediate damage/losses and losses resulting in even after two or three decades, decommissioning cost of a life expired plant and management of nuclear wastes and above all vulnerability to political and economic blackmail by the fuel suppliers.Incidentally no nation has made any provisions for  full arrangements for compensation in case of a blow out, decommissioning cost of a life expired plant and cost of management of nuclear wastes so far as these costs are exorbitant and in the light of this commercial exploitation of nuclear energy is perhaps simply not viable.And that is why no new nuclear plants have come up anywhere in the western world where the society is extremely sensitive to such issues.
2. Why should we Indians be made to sit on  potentially catastrophic sites when no scientist or technologist can guarantee an absolute safety of a nuclear power plant. They can only vouch for the fact that all safety measures as per current national safety standards have been incorporated. These standards are still in a process of evolution and get revised after each major accident. In fact the whole process is like chasing a mirage of absolute safety. By the time you incorporate one set of safety standards, new facts come to light in the wake of a disaster or calamity or an accident and you start incorporating additional safety devices and making new safety codes.

The government/polity is not entitled to commit such a horrendous stupidity even after making full arrangements for everything brought out in 1. above particularly when other saner and cost effective options are available. Let wisdom prevail on Indian Polity and let India be a nation which has learnt from the mistakes and experiences of others. By taking the timely action of switching over to renewable energy sources India can elevate itself to the status of world leader in the energy security game for all times to come.