Re: Nuclear power still needed, Letter Dec. 14

Nuclear power still needed, Letter Dec. 14

John Barrett, president of the Canadian Nuclear Association, misled your readers about the success of Germany’s clean energy policy. He focuses on a minor uptick to claim “Germany’s emissions increased.” In fact, German carbon emissions are down by some 25 per cent since 1990 (Canada’s are up during the same time frame). From the shutdown of eight nuclear plants in 2011 to 2013, nuclear power production dropped by 44 TWh (terawatt hours), whereas green power production increased by 47 TWh. Clearly, green electricity grew faster than nuclear shrank, and 3 TWh was left over to offset power from fossil fuels even in those years.

The data from the first quarter to the third quarter in 2014 reveal that coal power consumption is down year-over-year by nearly 15 per cent (18 TWh), with nuclear practically unchanged. Electricity from wind, solar and biomass has grown nearly as fast as coal power dropped this year.

The remainder is a decrease in power exports. Last year was a record year for German power exports, with the two main buyers being the Netherlands and France. Nuclear France in particular has trouble meeting its own power demand with its inflexible nuclear plants, which can generally only ramp up to around 60 GW — whereas power consumption in the winter can peak at 100 GW due to electric heating. The Germans are happy to help prevent blackouts in nuclear France by exporting up to 4 GW at such times, but keep in mind that those carbon emissions attributed to Germany are for the French, not for domestic consumption. Overall, as much as 3 per cent of carbon emissions from the power sector in 2013 stemmed from power exports to neighbouring countries.

If Mr. Barrett is truly worried about carbon emissions from the power sector, he might wish to take a look at my home country, the United States, where coal power generation increased by nearly a sixth from 692 TWh in the first half of 2012 to 806 TWh in the first half of 2014. During that same time frame, German coal power production dropped by some 3 per cent (from 124 to 121 TWh).

Indeed, with a population only four times larger, the U.S. consumes over six times more coal power than Germany — and rumour has it that Canada’s per capita carbon emissions might be ever so slightly higher than Germany’s as well.

Craig Morris, Freiburg, Germany

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