Two's a crowd: Nuclear and renewables don't mix
Only the latter can deliver truly low carbon energy, says new study

Date:
October 5, 2020
Source:
University of Sussex
Summary:
If countries want to lower emissions as substantially, rapidly
and cost- effectively as possible, they should prioritize support
for renewables, rather than nuclear power, the findings of a major
new energy study concludes.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
If countries want to lower emissions as substantially, rapidly and cost- effectively as possible, they should prioritize support for renewables,
rather than nuclear power.


========================================================================== That's the finding of new analysis of 123 countries over 25 years by the University of Sussex Business School and the ISM International School
of Management which reveals that nuclear energy programmes around the
world tend not to deliver sufficient carbon emission reductions and so
should not be considered an effective low carbon energy source.

Researchers found that unlike renewables, countries around the world
with larger scale national nuclear attachments do not tend to show significantly lower carbon emissions -- and in poorer countries nuclear programmes actually tend to associate with relatively higher emissions.

Published today in Nature Energy, the study reveals that nuclear and
renewable energy programmes do not tend to co-exist well together in
national low-carbon energy systems but instead crowd each other out and
limit effectiveness.

Benjmin K Sovacool, Professor of Energy Policy in the Science Policy
Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex Business School, said:
"The evidence clearly points to nuclear being the least effective of
the two broad carbon emissions abatement strategies, and coupled with
its tendency not to co-exist well with its renewable alternative, this
raises serious doubts about the wisdom of prioritising investment in
nuclear over renewable energy. Countries planning large-scale investments
in new nuclear power are risking suppression of greater climate benefits
from alternative renewable energy investments." The researchers, using
World Bank and International Energy Agency data covering 1990-2014,
found that nuclear and renewables tend to exhibit lock-ins and path dependencies that crowd each other out, identifying a number of ways in
which a combined nuclear and renewable energy mix is incompatible.

These include the configuration of electricity transmission and
distribution systems where a grid structure optimized for larger scale centralized power production such as conventional nuclear, will make it
more challenging, time- consuming and costly to introduce small-scale distributed renewable power.

Similarly, finance markets, regulatory institutions and employment
practices structured around large-scale, base-load, long-lead time
construction projects for centralized thermal generating plant are not
well designed to also facilitate a multiplicity of much smaller short-term distributed initiatives.

Andy Stirling, Professor of Science and Technology Policy at the
University of Sussex Business School, said: "This paper exposes the irrationality of arguing for nuclear investment based on a 'do everything' argument. Our findings show not only that nuclear investments around the
world tend on balance to be less effective than renewable investments
at carbon emissions mitigation, but that tensions between these two
strategies can further erode the effectiveness of averting climate
disruption." The study found that in countries with a high GDP per
capita, nuclear electricity production does associate with a small drop
in CO2 emissions. But in comparative terms, this drop is smaller than
that associated with investments in renewable energy.

And in countries with a low GDP per capita, nuclear electricity production clearly associates with CO2 emissions that tend to be higher.

Patrick Schmid, from the ISM International School of Management Mu"nchen,
said: "While it is important to acknowledge the correlative nature
of our data analysis, it is astonishing how clear and consistent the
results are across different time frames and country sets. In certain
large country samples the relationship between renewable electricity
and CO2-emissions is up to seven times stronger than the corresponding relationship for nuclear."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Sussex. Original
written by Neil Vowles.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sovacool, B.K., Schmid, P., Stirling, A. et al. Differences
in carbon
emissions reduction between countries pursuing renewable
electricity versus nuclear power. Nat Energy, 2020 DOI:
10.1038/s41560-020-00696-3 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201005112141.htm

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