After the Coal Plants Close, Where Will the U.S. Get Cheap...

After the Coal Plants Close, Where Will the U.S. Get Cheap Electricity

According to ExxonMobil's newest energy report The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040, "By 2040, worldwide electricity demand will be 80 percent higher than it was in 2010," and "electricity generation will account for more than 40 percent of global energy consumption."
In light of that projection, two news items that flew under the radar at yearend raise an important question: are we approaching the end of cheap electricity?

What is the Solution?

Expand our reliance on nuclear energy. In the days following Fukushima, Germany and Italy declared they would pull the plug on their countries' nuclear energy, but while Japan began shutting down its reactors for safety tests, Prime Minister Noda stated that Japan needs its nuclear generation capacity for economic survival. If Germany follows through with its promise to replace its present nuclear capacity with renewables, according to a report by Versant Partners, the price tag for the German energy policy would be $2.177 trillion, or 68% of Germany's 2010 gross domestic product. Could they survive the economic impact? Meantime, China, India and Russia have fully embraced nuclear, putting their money where their mouth is by moving more than a hundred new nuclear plants through the planning-design-development-construction pipeline. Additionally, all three countries are scrambling to secure fuel supply by bidding for stakes in uranium deposits around the globe. And those aren't the only countries beefing up nuclear capacity. South Korea, Vietnam, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and numerous others are investing heavily in nuclear generation. The World Nuclear Association reports that worldwide uranium demand from power plants exceeds the amount of uranium annually mined by about 22 percent. For two decades the gap was bridged in the U.S. largely by enriched uranium converted from Soviet warheads. That contract is slated to end in 2013. Consequently, exploration programs and permitting for new U.S. uranium mines are moving ahead full speed in the western states -- most notably Wyoming and Texas, two states that fully understand and welcome the positive economics of robust resource development.

If we really want reliable, low cost, zero-carbon electricity to power the U.S. economy through the 21st century, the most efficient path to that goal is to expand the nation's fleet of nuclear power generators

http://www.energypulse.net/centers/article/article_display.cfm?a_id=2508