Why are we putting more…

   Why are we putting more money into Nuclear Energy, when we should be moving to shut down the nuclear reactors and invest in solar energy?  Nuclear reactors are expensive to build and maintain, and risky -- especially in light of the fact that we do not have world-class nuclear emergency plans in place.

  Toshiba is losing billions of dollars, because nuclear power is unable to compete on price and is on the decline in the U.S.  When more than half of U.S. nuclear reactors are losing money, why is Canada stuck on using this form of energy?

  The market for solar power is growing faster than ever.  The keys to improving profitability are better capital and operational efficiency.  In 2015, investors poured $161 billion of capital into solar, the largest amount for any single power source.

  Benefits that are tangible to taxpayers include environmental, fuel price mitigation, outage risk protection, and long-term growth components.

  Photovoltaic (PV) solar plants are not nearly as complex to build as other types of power plants. We should be investing in solar electric power!  The world is building more solar-power plants because they are getting cheaper. Since 2009, the total installed costs of solar have fallen by as much as 70 percent around the world.  China is investing serious money in renewables. Japan’s government is seeking to replace a significant portion of its nuclear capacity with solar in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident. And in the United States and Europe, solar adoption rates have more than quadrupled since 2009.  Sun-drenched Saudi Arabia, for example, now considers solar sufficiently attractive to install substantial capacity by 2032, with an eye toward creating local jobs. And in Africa and India, where electric grids are patchy and unreliable, distributed generation is increasingly replacing diesel and electrifying areas previously without power.

  Canada has the resources and insolation necessary to build and successfully operate solar farms on par with global PV leaders. Solar PV capacity has grown substantially in Canada, reaching 1210 MW of cumulative installed capacity in 2013. The Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA) forecasts that the Canadian market will continue its steady growth and that annual capacity will increase three-fold by 2025. The Canadian solar PV industry received $2 billion of private sector investment in 20116 and, in 2012, CanSIA identified 650 organizations and companies servicing solar industries in Canada, including over 100 manufacturers of various solar PV components. As an emerging technology, solar PV is R & D intensive; Canada has the world-class research institutes and testing facilities needed for growth in the solar PV market.

  Between 2003 and 2012, Canada registered an estimated 233 patents in PV technology with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

 ■ Canada operates one of the world’s largest indoor solar simulators at the National Solar Test Facility in Mississauga, Ontario. Under the SolarCity Partnership, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority recently established a facility to test the performance of commercial PV products.

 ■ Testing facilities are also available at the Open Solar Outdoors Test Field in Kingston, Ontario, under an initiative led by Queen’s University, and at Concordia University’s unique Solar Simulator-Environmental Chamber.

 The Chamber, in Montréal, Quebec, supports research into solar-energy applications and advanced structural envelopes for net-zero energy buildings.

 ■ CanmetENERGY, within Natural Resources Canada, specializes in solar PV and solar thermal energy, and promotes grid integration of renewable power. Moreover, its PV Program conducts reviews of Canadian university research and innovation in the field of solar PV cell R & D. It is also home to an outdoor performance test bed, Varennes Research Centre (Varennes, Quebec), providing detailed information

 on energy yields for systems with conditions similar to those in Montréal, Quebec.

  In the case of large utility-scale projects, better up-front assessments of ground conditions can minimize rework for pile driving or trenching. Developers could prefabricate off-the-shelf units, making it possible to install them in hours rather than days for rooftops, or in weeks instead of months for large ground-mounted systems. To achieve this goal, firms will have to overhaul their supply chains to ensure that components can work with one another and should collaborate closely with EPC companies to create and deploy cost-saving ideas. The automotive industry, which uses standard designs over and over for different models, is a helpful analogy.

  A detailed cost road map can help to reduce costs and develop a realistic forward cost curve against which developers and sales teams can bid for future projects. An effective cost analysis begins with setting goals, based on the levelized cost of energy for each market. Then, each cost component should be mapped, targets set, and a portfolio of improvement initiatives developed and tracked.

  Solar’s changing economics are already influencing business consumption and investment. In consumption, a number of companies with large physical footprints and high power costs are installing commercial-scale rooftop solar systems, often at less than the current price of buying power from a utility. For example, Wal-Mart Stores has stated that it will switch to 100 percent renewable power by 2020, up from around 20 percent today. Mining and defense companies are looking to solar in remote and demanding environments. In the hospitality sector, Starwood Hotels and Resorts has partnered with NRG Solar to begin installing solar at its hotels. Verizon is spending $100 million on solar and fuel-cell technology to power its facilities and cell-network infrastructure. Why are companies doing such things? To diversify their energy supply, save money, and appeal to consumers. These steps are preliminary, but if they work, solar initiatives could scale up fast.

  Institutional investors, insurance companies, and major banks are becoming more comfortable with the risks (such as weather uncertainty and the reliability of components) associated with long-term ownership of solar assets. Accordingly, investors are more and more willing to underwrite long-term debt positions for solar, often at costs of capital lower than those of traditional project finance.

  Major players also are creating advanced financial products to meet solar’s investment profile. The best example of this to date is NRG Yield, and we expect other companies to unveil similar securities that pool renewable operating assets into packages for investors.

  As solar becomes integrated with energy-efficiency solutions, data analytics, and other technologies (such as storage), it will become an increasingly important element in the next generation of resource-related services and of the world’s coming resource revolution.

  Meanwhile, public opinion on nuclear issues is the aggregate of attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population concerning nuclear power, nuclear weapons and uranium mining. Nuclear power gets little public support worldwide.  Nuclear power is particularly unsupported by Canadians, with over half (53%) of Canadians opposed to it in 2012. http://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Canadian_support_for_nuclear_power

[Original Comment ID: 210214]