China's near-term energy future

When I read this... 'Wow' came quickly to mind. 38 GWe NEW nuclear, 140 GWe NEW hydro, and 90 GWe NEW wind (divide this by 3 to compare to the others in terms of likely generation).

... anyway, all of this by 2015! Nearly doubling their current non-fossil fuel energy supply from 8% of total energy demand today to 15%... in less than 5 years!

They also mention that energy intensity per unit GDP is dropping, currently down 20% from 2005 - an indication of increased efficiency. This is to drop by an additional 17% or so by 2015.

Seems like they're doing it all right; an example for the world...

Then I see China's thermal generation capacity (coal, oil and gas) will rise by 260 to 270 GWe over the same period. A single metric, looming over all others.

The clear bottom line; with all that they are doing, pursuing every option and investing a LOT of money to decarbonise, it is still far from enough.

in reference to: China power sector to boom as oil sector goes slower Reuters (view on Google Sidewiki)

Some annual stats

This time of year, many blogs are summing up 2010 and providing their version of current nuclear statistics. Who am I to resist?

But rather than look just at 2010, why now page back to 2004 - the first year of annual data on the main page of the IAEA Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) database.

2010 saw construction officially start (first concrete pour) on 15 nuclear units in 5 countries, including a 2-unit site in India. These amount to nearly 14.9 GWe of capacity [over a 1000% increase from construction starts in 2004].

The chart of the information from the database is below - I'll let the readers draw their own conclusions. [maroon - construction initiated (MWe), blue - construction initiated (No. Units), yellow - capacity brought online (MWe)]

Nuclear needed in Spain

Despite efforts of anti-nuclear campaigners to herald Spain as a solar energy example to the world; a closer examination will demonstrate that Spain must increase its reliance on nuclear energy to supplement the transition toward sustainable energy security and responsible environmental stewardship.

They've certainly made a respectable effort to move toward renewables, but their actions as reported by Bloomberg point to a compromise in that drive - between higher energy prices and a greater reliance on nuclear energy.

An example that renewables alone are inadequate to achieve real goals out in the real world.

in reference to: Spain Approves Increase in Nuclear Power Output, Expansion Says - Bloomberg (view on Google Sidewiki)