Scientific Alliance newsletter 27th June 2008

Tag : variable power supply

The UK government is trying to streamline the country's complex planningsystem. At its worst, this can currently result in largeexpenditures and years of delay while public enquiries are heldinto such major projects as Heathrow's Terminal 5 and the Sizewell B nuclear reactor. The rules allow not just local opposition groupsto present their case, but also national lobbying organisationsplay a major role in opposing projects on principle rather than forreasons directly related to the proposal. In the end, such projectstend to be implemented in any case, so there is certainly anargument for avoiding costly delays of the seemingly inevitable.
On the other hand, there must also be scope for genuinely localopposition to be properly heard and assessed; readers of lastweek's newsletter will have seen our comments on proposals for"eco-towns". The difference perhaps lies in the in-builtinflexibility of some projects. Once the strategic decision hasbeen made to increase airport capacity, it is quite legitimate toask whether it is right to expand Heathrow or build from scratch inthe Thames estuary, but the options are strictly limited.
In the case of nuclear power, the question is not whether newstations should be built, but where. The obvious sites existalready, alongside the current generation of stations, most ofwhich will soon be decommissioned. A recent consumer survey for Utility Week magazine found more than half of respondents favouring an increasein nuclear capacity, and people near existing nuclear stations(excluding employees at the sites) were even more positive. Inprinciple, a planning system which allowed legitimate localconcerns to be aired while excluding national campaigners wouldseem to be fair.
For ground transport, the options are even more limited: road andrail links have to be built within rather narrow corridors.Railways are generally seen as a useful part of the mix of publictransport which should be supported in an attempt to reduce the useof cars. Despite overcrowding and over-pricing, the UK system has shown strong growth in passenger numbers in recentyears, with more people travelling now than at any time in the past60 years. To the chagrin of public transport enthusiasts, thisreflects a trend for people generally to travel more, rather thansome move away from car journeys.
Nevertheless, the demand is there and must be met, and Network Railhas now announced a study which will look at the possibility ofbuilding five more – potentially high-speed – railwaylines in the busiest transport corridors, albeit not until 2025. Ifthese go forward as formal planning proposals, we can doubtlessexpect more objections – this time local – and delaysbefore the UK rail network is finally brought up to the standardthe French system reached 30 years ago. France has been followed more recently by many of its continentalneighbours, who seem much more willing to commit to necessaryinfrastructure projects than the Brits.
Ultimately, major infrastructure projects need to be assessed onthe basis of need. If the need is there, they surely have to bebuilt in the most appropriate place, taking into account localsensitivities as much as possible. But in the end the way tostreamline the process may be as much about fairly compensating theinevitable losers as spending years on exhaustive and fruitlessconsideration of evidence. Such attempts to be fair still end uppleasing no-one and delaying the inevitable.
Changing the power generation balance
Power generation is an important part of a country'sinfrastructure. What the mix will look like in a couple of decades'time is anyone's guess, but the role of renewables is still amatter for intense debate. The eventual prize must surely be tofind a way to tap into the ultimate (and, on a human scale,inexhaustible) source of energy for the planet: solar radiation.This requires not only more efficient and cost-effective ways ofcapturing this energy, whether photovoltaic or thermal, but alsosignificant improvements in large-scale storage and distribution.Pumping water uphill to generate hydro-electricity when needed is avery limited option, and other means to energy storage systems(hydrogen, batteries etc) are simply not yet developed on asufficient scale.
In the meantime, there is continued investment in wind power inmany countries, with technology apparently developing to allowturbines to operate at higher wind speeds than are currentlypossible. But the overriding problem with wind remains itsintermittency, which is one reason for the decline in enthusiasm in Denmark and Germany , two leaders in the technology. One answer to this in the longerterm could be better storage technologies, as for solar power, butthe fact that we hear little of this re-emphasises the lack ofcurrently viable solutions.