According to data compiled by Occams Research, the global nuclear energy market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4% during the forecast period of 2016 to 2023. The switch to nuclear power is primarily due to depleting fossil fuel reserves and a more environmentally efficient source of power. The demand for it is mostly driven by industries and households, who are utilizing more of the alternative source of energy. By region, Asia-Pacific countries such as Russia and China, are the key producers in the industry and are expected to drive the market forward. Data published by Mordor Intelligence estimates that China is expected to become the biggest supplier. The country has planned to augment its nuclear power generation capacity from 32.4 GW in 2017 to 150 GW by 2050.
PR Newswire 22nd June 2018 read more »
Jeremy Leggett: Why Are Nations Throwing Cash At Nuclear ‘White Elephants’? In recent weeks we have seen evidence on the one hand of the fast advance of renewable energy, and on the other the incredible resilience of the energy-incumbency defence against that advance, including big oil and nuclear. Celebrations of the fast growth of renewables I will leave to the inestimable REN21 report, published on 4 June. All clean-energy advocates should spend some time immersed in it, arming themselves with bullish ammunition. The point I want to make in this column is about the residual strength of the incumbency rearguard action. In the last week of May and the first week of June the UK, US, and Canadian governments all tried to bail out uneconomic or stranded fossil fuel and nuclear projects with many billions in public funds. I have dubbed it “The Week of the White Elephants.” Very strange things to do when you consider not just the economics but the general direction of travel in all relevant areas. Let me take just two examples for each act, from among the many which are summarised on my website FutureToday. In France nuclear regulators now fear an “epidemic” safety-culture collapse at Flamanville, the supposed precursor of the British Hinkley Point C reactor. 150 weld failures mean the nuclear plant scheduled online in 2012 at €3.5bn is now probably delayed to 2020, at €10.5bn and counting. This is not the same type of reactor that Hitachi intends for Wylfa, but the horror show at Flamanville shows how badly, and quickly, things can go wrong in modern nuclear. As the formerly pro-nuclear The Economist put it in 2016, in an analysis entitled “Hinkley Pointless”, “Britain should cancel its nuclear white elephant and spend the billions on making renewables work.” These decisions are difficult to understand when you consider that, as a recent summary by renewables experts put it, there are no roadblocks on the way to a 100% renewable future. All issues are solvable at low cost, and certainly far lower than the cost of keeping the dying energy incumbency alive. All this shows renewables advocates how much further we have to go. The residual energy incumbency – in big energy companies, and their proxies in governments – remains formidable.
Impact 4 All 11th June 2018 read more »