Implications of Zero-Carbon Nuclear Renewable Economy: Equity, Economics, and Social Costs
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA, 02139 (United States)
Different energy systems have different impacts on equity, economics, and social costs of energy. This leads to alternative strategies for a zero-carbon economy from considering all options to a renewables-only strategy. We examine implications of different choices from a long-term perspective. This is coupled to but separate from the discussion of how to transition to a low-carbon energy system. If we are to stop greenhouse gas emissions with current goals, the transition must be fast. That requires a large nuclear contribution. Experiences in France and Sweden indicate that one can transition the electric grid from fossil fuels to nuclear in 20 to 25 years if it is a priority. Neither renewables with associated storage and transmission nor carbon capture and sequestration for fossil fuel use in electricity generation are available today at competitive costs to do that. The cost of energy has historically been a major factor in determining where industry and cities are built because it is a large fraction of the global economy. The development of low-cost methods to transport coal, oil, and natural gas partly broke that connection by enabling relatively uniform global energy costs. Nuclear energy because of the low-cost of fuel transport has the same characteristic. Renewables are location dependent. In a renewables-only future, the renewable resources distribution determines local energy costs that directly impacts where there is future economic growth and where there will be lower costs of living. In the U.S. today solar is generally uneconomic. Some Great Plains wind is competitive. Offshore wind is uneconomic. Based on projections of renewables costs, an all-renewable U.S. would see (1) movement of industry and people to between the Mississippi River (water and transportation) and the high plains (high wind velocities and low construction costs) and the southwest and (2) growing regional differences in standards of living. The costs of moving energy from renewables long distances is partly because of the high cost of transport systems (high-voltage lines with low capacity factors, hydrogen inter-conversion losses, etc.) and partly because of the non-dispatchability of renewables. A nuclear renewable world will have large variations in the relative amounts of nuclear, wind and solar with location-reflecting local cost of renewable resources. The deployment of wind and solar would be similar to hydro and geothermal-deployed where there is a concentrated resource. In the U.S. and globally this will likely be the norm because countries with limited access to low-cost renewables will not accept lower standards of living. The relative quantities of nuclear, wind and solar will change with relative advances in energy technologies. Energy is a large fraction of the economy; thus, energy choices have major economic, equity, and social implications. That, in turn, impacts standards of living and economic competitiveness. (authors)
- OSTI ID:
- 22991832
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Vol. 114, Issue 1; Conference: Annual Meeting of the American Nuclear Society, New Orleans, LA (United States), 12-16 Jun 2016; Other Information: Country of input: France; 8 refs.; Available from American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 United States; ISSN 0003-018X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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