Sue me: I love the FT. It has comprehensive, smart and deep coverage of energy and the environment. I subscribe to the paper and to the “Energy Source” blog feed. Once again, they’re hitting on all cylinders with this special report, Modern Energy.
There are articles here on oil, gas, power demand, biofuels, the state of affairs in Russia and France, wind power, solar power, energy efficiency and nuclear, among some other subjects.
On energy efficiency, Fiona Harvey writes: “The business case is clear, says Ben Warren, partner at Ernst & Young. ‘Energy efficiency investments provide the opportunity for businesses to realise real-time cost savings, as well as managing longer-term exposure to carbon cost and the risk of volatile energy prices in the future,’ he says.”
If you know me or follow this blog, you know my lifelong antipathy for nuclear power. Ed Crooks, the FT’s Global Energy Editor, has an article about how the “nuclear renaissance” seems to be in a state of continual abeyance. He echoes a key perception of Amory Lovins about nuclear power, namely that market economies recognize the extraordinary financial risks in nuclear power and avoid them. Lovins reiterates here in 2009 what he said in a paper in 2008: “Nuclear power is continuing its decades-long collapse in the global marketplace because it’s grossly uncompetitive, unneeded, and obsolete.” Similarly, Crooks writes that, for one thing: “First, the global financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007, has curbed investors’ appetite for risky commitments, including large nuclear plants costing €5bn-plus ($6.3bn-plus) that face unpredictable risks in terms of energy markets, technology, regulation and political support.”
Also, as Lovins asserts about the new construction: “36 (over two-thirds) are in just four countries – China, India, Russia, and South Korea – none of which use competitive markets to choose whether or which power plants are built, and none of which is very transparent about construction status or decision process.” Crooks quotes an analyst from Capgemini, the consulting firm: “When you speak about the nuclear renaissance, you are really talking about Asia.” Command-and-control economies are calling the shots there. Lovins again: “I think nuclear power can’t get far without having a business case in market economies too, because I doubt that most of the world’s economy will adopt a command-and-control energy economy.”
