"The particular thing about secondary energy is that fossil and nuclear fuels can be either (a) refined for further use or (b) be transformed into electricity, heat, or energy storage (e.g. hydrogen).
On the other hand, renewable primary energy is directly transformed into electricity, heat, or chemical storage. It does not need to be refined or purified."
I suggest you look more into the uranium fuel cycle. It is one of the cleanest mining operations in the world, and a very tiny amount is required for reactors. It is also recycled, unlike PV panels which are put into landfills. France and Japan recycle their fuel, and breeder reactors extend the useful life of raw uranium by literally thousands of years.
VRE isnt the product of immaculate conception - lots of mining and dirty industrial processes are required to produce copper and polysilicon. The Amazon rainforest is literally being clearcut to produce charcoal for polysilicon refinement.
Vaclav Smil may not be right about everything, but we definitely need to curb our energy use (which goes triple for well-educated people in big economies, who live at an energy standard that is no longer supported by the planet's physical attributes). https://ukfires.org/blog-cop26/
"The particular thing about secondary energy is that fossil and nuclear fuels can be either (a) refined for further use or (b) be transformed into electricity, heat, or energy storage (e.g. hydrogen).
On the other hand, renewable primary energy is directly transformed into electricity, heat, or chemical storage. It does not need to be refined or purified."
The CANDU reactor is deployed in 7 countries and decarbonized the Ontario grid. It is fueled by natural uranium, no enrichment required. https://cna.ca/reactors-and-smrs/how-a-nuclear-reactorworks/
I suggest you look more into the uranium fuel cycle. It is one of the cleanest mining operations in the world, and a very tiny amount is required for reactors. It is also recycled, unlike PV panels which are put into landfills. France and Japan recycle their fuel, and breeder reactors extend the useful life of raw uranium by literally thousands of years.
VRE isnt the product of immaculate conception - lots of mining and dirty industrial processes are required to produce copper and polysilicon. The Amazon rainforest is literally being clearcut to produce charcoal for polysilicon refinement.
Thanks for pointing to the CANDU reactor. Will do some reading.
Vaclav Smil may not be right about everything, but we definitely need to curb our energy use (which goes triple for well-educated people in big economies, who live at an energy standard that is no longer supported by the planet's physical attributes). https://ukfires.org/blog-cop26/
Thanks for the links. Will explore.
Having designed a game about changing NYC's energy system, it's daunting looking at the fastest rates that have been achieved so far (the fastest, Iceland's 10 year build-out of hydro, is about a tenth of the speed we need for NYC to meet zero carbon by about 2040): https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grant-chalmers_data-rstats-ggplot2-activity-7068785644277305344-Sa79?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
Update from Allwood & co:
https://ukfires.org/is-absolute-zero-pessimistic-about-uk-energy-supplies/