One of the most apparent trends in 21st Century America is the emphasis on "green" technology.
Here in Vancouver we can see the giant blades for wind turbines being moved on flatbeds from the Port of Vancouver up Highway 14 to be installed in the Columbia River Gorge.
There, they harness wind to generate electricity.
The unfortunate reality is that these wind turbines will never recover their energy investment. Think of any power source as a battery. The costs of manufacturing, transporting and installing a wind turbine can never be recovered in terms of the amount of electricity produced without resorting to tax credits and the Bonneville Power Administration buying the power produced at above market rates.
In fact, the BPA recently increased its wind integration surcharge. This represents the cost of providing backup power for when the wind is not blowing.
Surprisingly, a technology receiving a second look for its green benefits is nuclear energy. Although the United States leads in the total amount of energy produced by nuclear power, the percentage of power produced by nuclear is only 19 percent, according to "Terrestrial Energy" by William Tucker.
France leads the world in the percentage of its power produced by nuclear at 79 percent, and much of that is exported.
The American public came to distrust nuclear power after some well publicized reactor mishaps by the Soviet Navy, the disaster at Chernobyl and the incident at Three Mile Island. But as with any kind of technology, it usually takes several product generations until users can reap its benefits.
Does anyone remember Windows 1.0? That is because it took until Windows 3.0 for it to be a viable alternative.
There are several converging trends that will lead to the next generation of nuclear power meeting the majority of our power needs.
Reactors will be confined to relatively few sites, with several operating at each site. The improvements in the electrical power grid that enables transmission and load balancing between intermittent windmills will also work to balance the load between the nuclear power sites and urban centers.
Security at those sites has been hardened so the terrorist threat has been reduced.
The structure of the utility industry itself has changed.
During the time of Nuclear 1.0, utilities were vertically integrated and operated in a relatively small region. They managed a portfolio of coal fired, nuclear, hydroelectric and natural gas generating assets, as well as the transmission lines.
They were responsible for marketing the power they produced. Today the business of generating electricity is separate from the business of selling electricity. Utilities now understand the difference in mindset between running a coal-fired plant (run it until something breaks, then fix it) and running a nuclear plant (it better not break).
Finally, nuclear plant operations have become much more professional. This is because of increased civilian industry training and the impact of veterans of the U.S. Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program.
Which leads us back to two interesting conclusions: If wind was such a strong and reliable source of power, the U.S. Navy would still use it to power its ships, and "Green" 2.0 = "Blue" 2.0.
Those who support green power should strongly endorse and support the widespread adoption of nuclear power. There are 30 nuclear power plants with applications before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission – support them. In fact, just 100 nuclear power plants would more than meet the energy needs of the U.S.
