The frozen wind turbines seen during the Texas blackout last month, as well as the regular rolling blackouts we see during the California summers, draw attention to the uncomfortable reality of wind and solar power: they are not reliable enough to to support the United States energy networks. As technology advances, solar and wind batteries may be able to store more energy. However, at the moment, energy storage for these renewable energies is poor. Given these limitations, the federal and state governments should try to use other options – nuclear power and natural gas, which are used in conjunction with CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technology – that are highly efficient, reliable and clean solutions that can deliver electricity United States without interruption.
Solar panels and wind turbines only generate energy when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. Solar panels are said to only last 25 years, and according to the International Renewable Energy Agency, solar panels will generate six million tons of waste every year by 2050. Wind turbines also generate large amounts of toxic waste. 150 tons of coal and two tons of rare earth metals are required to build a wind turbine. The degradation of these rare earth metals has a negative impact on the environment. Of course, nuclear reactors and natural gas plants also produce waste. Nuclear reactors produce radioactive waste that is stored in safe areas. While scientists are still researching the disposal of nuclear waste, strict regulations regulate the handling and disposal of the waste. Natural gas plants also produce waste, but CCS technology can significantly mitigate this.
Nuclear energy and natural gas in conjunction with CCS technology are means of combating climate change that are too often ignored. In the US, nuclear power only accounts for 20 percent of electricity generation, while natural gas accounts for 40 percent of energy consumption. Nuclear energy works 93 percent – more than any other energy source. This significant base load of energy is essential to the power grid, especially when natural disasters occur in states like Texas. Nuclear energy is not only the safest form of energy, it also does not cause any CO2 emissions. Nuclear power can replace coal and oil – impure sources of energy that only provide 22 percent of the energy in the US. While CCS technology has cut emissions by 50 to 70 percent in some cases, it is expected to be able to cut emissions by up to 90 percent. If the federal and state governments take the fight against climate change seriously, they must definitely consider a greater dependence on nuclear energy and natural gas in connection with carbon capture technology. Nuclear energy is reliable, safe and carbon free. Nuclear energy also prevents thousands of tons of pollutants from entering the atmosphere every year. A 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactor generates energy equivalent to three million solar panels and more than 430 wind turbines. The advantage is obvious: nuclear reactors can generate enormous amounts of energy without significantly polluting the environment. In addition, due to the density of the nuclear fuel, nuclear power does not generate a large amount of waste. Nuclear power also emits less radiation than any other source of energy. It’s also extremely efficient. For every nuclear reactor that is prematurely shut down, a million solar panels would need to be installed in households to generate the appropriate amount of energy, and more efficient battery storage would need to be created for those modules to provide power at night.
“If the federal and state governments take the fight against climate change seriously, they must definitely consider a greater dependence on nuclear energy and natural gas in connection with the technology for carbon capture.”
Despite its advantages, nuclear power has been abandoned by the energy industry in favor of renewable energies. Nuclear energy does not receive the subsidies that renewables receive, while regulations have hampered innovation in the design of nuclear reactors. Even so, there have been promising advances in nuclear reactors. Georgia Power is building the plant Vogtle units three and four, which use the new AP1000 technology with security systems. NuScale opens the door to Advanced Nuclear, building a nuclear reactor that is smaller, less complex, and at a fraction of the cost of standard reactors today. Nuscale’s new reactor is safer and has more security mechanisms, so the reactor will have to rely less on human involvement in the event of a problem. As of 2016, 19 nuclear reactors will be dismantled in the USA. A lack of investment in nuclear power has resulted in a sharp decline in the US nuclear industry when we need it most. In 2017, investments in nuclear power decreased by 45 percent, while new core capacity increased by 70 percent. Nuclear reactors are expensive to maintain and delays in construction have resulted in even higher costs. In the meantime, our main economic competitor, China, has carefully increased its dependence on nuclear energy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that China will surpass the US as the leading nuclear power producer by 2030.
Many politicians have promised that nuclear power plants can be replaced by wind and sun. Not only is this a daunting task – half of America’s clean energy comes from nuclear reactors – but the wind and sun don’t produce energy unless the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. Federal and local governments must increasingly rely on nuclear energy. In addition, they should invest in the research and creation of new nuclear reactors, such as those built by NuScale. The IEA warns that if advanced economies do not invest in new reactors and extend the life of current reactors, the result would be four billion tons more CO2 in the atmosphere.
When carbon capture technology is used in conjunction with the combustion of natural gas, the carbon is isolated from other gases produced in industrial processes and then pipelined underground where it is stored in geological formations. Although the technology is not yet widespread at this point, carbon capture has been shown to work and has been recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as an essential tool in combating climate change. In addition, according to the IEA, carbon capture, use and storage technologies can cut carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 20 percent and reduce the cost of combating climate change by 70 percent. NET Power has successfully operated a CCS gas-fired power plant in La Porte, Texas and recently announced plans to build four more plants. NET Power actually uses a combination of carbon capture and sequestration to produce net zero emissions. Instead of burning natural gas with air, it is burned with oxygen. Carbon capture not only needs to be limited to natural gas, it needs to be expanded to other industries in order to meet the Biden government’s climate goals. Carbon capture was added to steel mills like Petra Nova in Texas. Unfortunately, Petra Nova had to close in 2020 due to low oil prices. Petra Nova reduced CO2 emissions by 70 percent, which, although not as expected, is still significant. CCS technology also detects pollutants such as sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and particles. Despite the carbon emissions that coal produces, in the vast majority of cases coal is critical to steelmaking and so CCS is the answer. Other industrial processes also require carbon capture technologies to meet US climate goals. Fertilizer plants as well as steel, cement and chemical plants must introduce CCS.
The federal and state governments should pass laws that create more incentives for investments in carbon capture technologies such as tax credits and subsidies. As of 2018, carbon capture technology accounted for just 0.1 percent of clean energy investments. However, there is cause for optimism. ExxonMobil announced in February that it would allocate $ 3 billion to develop carbon capture technology, while Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, pledged $ 100 million for those who develop “the best carbon capture technology.”
Natural gas plants, including those using CCS, have environmental problems. Methane leaks from these facilities are harmful to the environment and these leaks may occur more frequently than previously thought. Because methane emissions are invisible to the naked eye, emissions monitors should be mandatory in all natural gas facilities to detect methane leaks so companies can quickly isolate and repair them. CCS technology is very expensive at this point, which has been an obstacle to its adoption. Hopefully, however, with more technological innovation and government subsidies, costs will come down.
Some members of Congress have recognized that the future of clean energy lies in carbon capture and nuclear power. As part of the 2018 bipartisan Budget Act, the Senate passed the FUTURE bill that increased the tax credit for companies that use carbon capture. Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) sees the promise of carbon capture technology to fight climate change and introduces two bills signed in December 2020. The first is the LEADING Act, which directs the Department of Energy to provide competitive grants to companies developing carbon capture technologies. With the new energy frontier bill, a carbon innovation center is being set up to find new ways to use carbon dioxide. Crenshaw advocates reusing carbon for “everything from improved oil extraction to cement production to plant growth.” These are steps in the right direction. Instead of letting carbon dioxide destroy the environment, we can use it. This would show American innovation at its finest.
Congress is also taking action in the field of nuclear energy. In 2019, Senators Chris Coon (D-DL) and Martha McSally (R-AZ) introduced the Nuclear Energy Renewal Act (NERA), the program to reduce the operating and maintenance costs of existing nuclear power plants and to support research and development created by advanced nuclear reactors. In 2020 Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act (ANIA), which aims to preserve of nuclear reactors contributes As part of a targeted credit program, incentives for investments in nuclear reactors are created and the approval process for advanced nuclear technologies is accelerated. These bills should be signed into law as they would help renew the stalled nuclear industry. We need more legislation on nuclear power and CCS. They are the clean energy solutions to counter the growing threat of climate change.
Photo: Image via Unsplash (Mario Caruso)
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