Alternative energy sources are not sufficient for today

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Robert Andrews’s proposal to invest in a nuclear power plant in Northern Ireland (Belfast Telegraph, January 18) is probably the single most important entrepreneurial step since Messrs Harland and Wolff thought it would be a good idea to build ships here.

There are undoubtedly many serious environmental issues with nuclear power, from the processing of the ore to provide the fuel, the safe operation of the facility to the safe disposal and storage of the waste material.

However, none of these problems are insurmountable and they have been, to a large extent, dealt with in other countries such as Canada and France.

There is one incontrovertible truth, which is simple engineering and physics, that to provide the energy resources for a modern Western economy it is impossible to collect enough directly radiated energy from the sun.

All renewable energy sources, with the exception of tidal and geothermal generators, are in some form converting from directly radiated solar energy.

This is what drives the wind, makes waves and grows biofuel. When we burn fossil fuels, we use up energy that was derived from many years of sunlight in a short time, on tap and when we need it.

Aside from the impact of the carbon this dumps back into the biosphere in too short a time for natural processes to cope with it, it means that we are inevitably going to run out.
This means that we either return to a pre-industrial state where energy is obtained from sunlight or we build nuclear power stations.

These are the choices. Not one of the proposed renewable energy sources are in any way viable in an industrial nation.

We cannot rewind to before the industrial era and that means that the future successful peoples will be those that have access to energy while the less successful will have to buy it from them.

In Northern Ireland we could buy it from the English or the Welsh, but I would much prefer it if we were able to generate it ourselves. By all means ensure that Mr Andrews proposals are well researched and regulated for sound environmental compliance, but don’t let the highly vocal anti-nuclear protest movement irrationally destroy something which has more potential to enhance the future prosperity of Northern Ireland than many of the political and public sector enticements for industrial and commercial growth, laudable as they are.

The choice is ours, horsepower or nuclear power?