Disaster in Japan should boost investment in wind and solar
The nuclear accident triggered by the recent earthquake in Japan will have a lasting impact on the world’s energy mix, Christiana Figueres, the UN’s top climate official, has said.
‘Japan will change mid-term world energy scenarios,’ she said on Twitter.
The accident will add to the controversy around nuclear power and at the very least delay investment in new nuclear plants. This may boost demand for solar and wind power by up to ten percent, analysts told AFP. But they added that the main beneficiaries in the short term will be fossil fuels, especially natural gas, which is the quickest way to make up any shortfall in power generation.
The disaster will colour the debate around a planned referendum in Italy on the resumption of nuclear power in the country. Italians voted to abandon nuclear power in another referendum in 1987, a year after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union. But the UK’s Institute of Mechanical Engineers urged that the accident not be allowed to derail the effort to build more nuclear reactors in the UK.
‘We shouldn’t be complacent – we need to learn from what is happening now in Japan – but to make any long-term decisions before we know the facts would be reckless,’ said Stephen Tetlow, the institute’s chief executive.
Cooking oil is being purified and used as jet fuel.
The US military is turning to biofuels for the future searching for ways to limit dependence on foreign oil.
Solar power is becoming a more viable option for the masses these days as companies such as Green Mountain and Google are promoting huge public service movements on the solar energy platform.
Despite the softening world economies wind energy projects have remained popular and in demand. Global wind turbine markets have weathered recent economic storms with remarkable aplomb.
Google is making a stand for the environment and backing a large green energy project.