I’m very pleased to announce my op-ed for Nature, one of the world’s most respected international scientific journals. You can read the final version in the June 20, 2013 edition in print, or online here:
Investor and StockTwits Executive Editor Phil Pearlman liked my article for Quartz comparing the costs of nuclear power to solar, and invited me to a Google Hangout to discuss it. You can see the video below; it’s about half an hour long. The video struggled a bit with my weak Internet connection in the UK, but the sound came through clearly. Worth a listen if you just can’t get enough of my views on solar vs. nuclear!
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For Quartz this week, I ran down the data on the cost of nuclear power vs. the cost of renewables, in response to The Breakthrough Institute’s recent claim that the cost of German solar is four times the cost of Finnish nuclear power. If you want to know what nuclear power really costs, here’s the data.
Read it here: The real reason to fight nuclear power has nothing to do with health risks
Note: I would not have said we should “fight” nuclear power; the title wasn’t my choosing, and it was more in reference to a previous Quartz article on the health aspects. I just don’t think the current generation of nuclear technology makes economic sense, and the next generation has yet to prove itself…despite the claims of a loud chorus of nuclear advocates and a well-promoted film.
For SmartPlanet last week, I reviewed the recent closure of four nuclear plants in the U.S., including the San Onofre Generation Station in California, and concluded that nuclear power is headed for a long goodbye. Read it here: Nuclear’s swan SONGS
For Greentech Media this week, I critiqued the views of noted energy historian Vaclav Smil on peak oil and the transition to renewable energy. It’s a very geeky topic that probably won’t appeal much to laymen, but serious energy analysts and commentators should find it worthwhile.
For SmartPlanet this week, I updated my outlook for oil and gas prices this year. So far my model is working beautifully, and has proved to be far more accurate than the calls made by the big-name analysts at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.
Read it here: 2013 oil and gas price forecast update
For Greentech Media this week, I considered the evolution of microgrids as both a threat and an opportunity for utilities. The question is: How will they approach it?
For SmartPlanet this week, I turned my attention to the UK, which is deep in the throes of shale gas fever.
Read it here: Fracking envy
Postscript: The day after I wrote this article, UK Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in New York City and said: “We are not going to be able to compete on our mineral resources, although frankly I am pretty jealous of your fracking success here in the US.”
Can’t beat that with a stick.
For those who care about mainstream press treatment of energy and peak oil, Charles Mann has published a long response to my rebuttal of his Atlantic article.
Amory Lovins followed up with his own critique of Mann’s piece, to which Mann responded. Lovins followed up with a rebuttal to Mann’s response [PDF].
I will not take this debate further at the moment, but I will note that Mann’s objections to my piece mainly focused on picayune details. If I had the inclination and the time, I could demonstrate that several of his objections are incorrect, but sadly, I do not have either. I think the thrust of my rebuttal–that it is far from assured, or even likely, that methane hydrates can or will be produced at an acceptable price or production level–still stands.
For Greentech Media this week, I reviewed some exhaustive recent research on energy trends and forecasts, which showed that the conventional wisdom about renewables and their future is way out of date, and the renewably-powered grid will be here sooner than most people expect. “It’s not 1990 anymore,” the report’s lead author observed at the Pathways to 100% Renewables Conference held April 16 in San Francisco.
