The true cost of green energy

[Brian Ellis]

Spiegel Online International has published a graphic showing the cost of preventing one tonne of CO2 being emitted, by different methods:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/bild-718951-40260.html

As could be expected, by far the cheapest method was nuclear energy at €7. Using this figure as an index of 1, I have re-tabulated the data in a slightly different form at http://www.cypenv.eu/envenergy/eefor...icseen#msg1100. Unfortunately, I can't publish the table here because the forum software does not support the table

These data are extracted from an interesting article The Expensive Dream of Clean Energy: Will High Costs Kill Merkel's Green Revolution? at http://www.spiegel.de/international/...718951,00.html

[Umfriend]

I wonder what the graph would look like if it showed the cost of preventing 1kg of nuclear waste to arise.

[Brian Ellis]

I wonder what the graph would look like if it showed the cost of preventing 1kg of nuclear waste to arise.

To produce 1 kg of nuclear waste, you will have generated several GWh of energy, equivalent to many tonnes of coal ash, which is also something we cannot dispose of correctly. In reality, if we were as bothered with it to reach the same standards of environmental awareness as for nuclear waste, we would have stopped using coal decades ago. As it is, this chemically reactive coal waste, which is also slightly radioactive, is mostly dumped into the sea, killing much marine life, or landfilled, where it pollutes ground water, in time. Of course, this is minor compared with the air pollution produced from using coal.