germany to phase out nuclear power. could the us do the same? - commercial energy storage systems

At a White House press conference on Tuesday, President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood together on topics ranging from the global economy to Libya.
Last week, however, German Chancellor Angela Merkel parted ways with the United States on a common vision of how to maintain economic prosperity while reducing greenhouse gases.
For both countries, nuclear energy is part of the plan.
Not for Germany.
After the Fukushima disaster in Japan, Ms Merkel announced that her country would shut down 17 existing reactors by 2022.
Other countries, including Japan, Italy and Switzerland, have announced plans to cut nuclear power, but no country can do the same as Germany, the world's fourth-largest --The largest economy
Merkel vowed to replace nuclear energy with alternatives that would not increase greenhouse gases or bind economic growth.
Picture: can the United States do the same for nuclear energy around the world?
More and more reports have shown that this is not beyond the scope of the possibilities and that Germany can provide a road map.
"Germany is carrying out what I call a big lab experiment," said Mark Hibbs, senior assistant to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's nuclear policy program.
"In the next 10 years, the Germans will face the challenge of using all of these [alternative]
"Energy technologies can do what they need to do," he added . ".
"If they succeed, we will most likely see other countries completely reconsider their nuclear program.
"About 20% of the electricity in the United States comes from nuclear power, similar to 22 in Germany. 6 percent.
Again, nuclear
Energy advocates in the United States and Germany have expressed doubts about the ability of renewable energy to meet the "basic load" power traditionally provided by coal and nuclear power plants without harming the economy.
"There is a lot of research that shows that nuclear power is the key to providing basic load power," said Mitch Singh, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Research Institute of the Washington industrial and trade group.
Note that changes in wind and cloud can affect renewable energy
He added: "Wind and solar are so changeable that they do cause problems when you put so many things on the grid.
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However, more and more research has also shown that the United States can at least start following Germany.
The 2010 analysis by the Electric Power Research Institute found that the carbon emission reduction targets of US power plants can be achieved in the short term mainly through efficiency and renewable energy.
New nuclear power and advanced coal in the long run
The study found that coal-fired power plants will not have a significant impact on controlling greenhouse gases.
A 2009 report from the relevant league of scientists found that the United States can meet electricity demand and reduce carbon emissions from power plants.
Over the past 20 years, CO2 emissions have increased by 84% by improving energy efficiency, wind energy, solar energy, geothermal and biomass energy.
The study pointed out that the plan to build four new nuclear power plants and 32 new coal-fired power plants is "easily replaced by new natural gas power plants or additional efficiency and renewable energy at a lower cost ".
A 2010 Synapse Energy Economics study concluded that the United States "can replace coal --
Using energy efficiency and renewable energy to generate electricity, we can reduce the use of nuclear energy. Quarter before 2050
"The conclusion we have from this study is that we can have this completely different future of power generation, in terms of resource mix and dependence on coal and nuclear energy, that's very good-but Bruce biwald, president of the incremental cost Boston Synapse, said
Co-author of energy consulting and research.
Suggestion: Nuclear safety: five recent "near mistakes" incidents at US nuclear power plants are solving the problem of variability of renewable energy.
The "smart grid" system that balances load with power generation is coming soon. Natural-
Gas power plants can provide backup energy for wind and solar energy;
They can start and stop quickly.
By expanding the wind turbine to a larger geographic area, the variability of wind power generation can be greatly reduced.
Energy storage systems can be used for industry-
The ability of Scale scale to run around the clock as a base load source.
Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said in 2009: "I think the base load capacity will be an era error . ".
"We may not need any [
New coal or nuclear power plantsever.
Of the 104 nuclear reactors in the United States, the license for 66 reactors has been extended for 20 years, and the other 18 are under review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The nuclear power industry expects four to eight new reactors to start operating between 2016 and 2020.
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Some say freezing nuclear power in the United States or reversing it could have negative consequences. Next-
James Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute and leading advocate for greenhouse gas reduction, said power generation nuclear power plants will be cleaner and safer and may have great commercial value for the United Statesgas emissions.
"We still have the best expertise in this technology, and we should develop this technology because it is something we can sell to China and India," he wrote in his blog . ".
"They will not be able to get all the energy from the sun and the wind.
Merkel plans to prove him wrong.
What happened in Germany could have a huge impact on countries around the world, including the United States. A just-
A study released by 120 researchers working with the United Nations Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change found that by the medium term, nearly 80% of the world's energy supply can be met through renewable energy.
If supported by public policy,
Mark Jacobson said: "Of course, the United States has enough resources to power the country many times with renewable energy . " A professor of civil and environmental engineering in 2009 studies in the journal Scientific Americans found that the United States and the rest of the world can use renewable energy to meet all its energy needs.