Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Electrical Power cables to Europe


  1. Øystein Stray Spetalen gets a lot of coverage for his ("ostrich-like") opposition to new power cables to Germany and England. 
  2. Centralization and bigger cities are more climate-friendly than small villages and farms   
  3. Profitable ways to limit CO2 emissions? (with a picture of a cow in DN) 
  4. The head of IFE says nuclear power must be added to the mix 

1) Power cables: for me it's obvious that the climate change is a global issue and that energy should be "produced and consumed" where it is the least stressful for our climate. When good projects are dismissed in Norway due to low electricity prices while the rest of Europe are living with a far higher electricity prices (and thus pay more per tonne of CO2 saved) - we should react. It is not justifiable to subsidize gasoline in Brazil, and likewise - it is not acceptable to keep artificially low electricity prices due to deficiencies in the infrastructure = limited capacity between Norway and EU). See what high electricity prices in Europe has done with people's habits - such as turning off lights in rooms they are not using.

2) Many romanticize living in the countryside, but are they aware of the fact that our climate footprint is reduced when we live close to each other in big cities? (Distribution of goods, trash / sewer, transit, demand for heating / heating, etc..).

3) Profitable CO2 projects: with the image of a cow, DN yesterday wrote a good article on the CO2 footprint of producing red meat vs white meat vs vegetarian. When we also get the aforementioned subsea cables to Germany and England - we can more easily see a direct correlation between the choices each of us makes and the global climate change.

4) Nuclear power: the fact that nuclear power does not emit greenhouse gases (during production) has been known for a long time - and it is not surprising to anyone that the head of Institutt for Energiteknikk is positive to nuclear power. After the disaster in Japan (tsunami and its consequences for nuclear power plant) many countries have decided to reduce their reliance on nuclear power. It is therefore a bold move by the IFE director to go public today with a statement that we must add nuclear power to the energy mix - to reach our CO2 targets. I am hoping for a sober debate. (Some time ago I wrote in this Jahus blog about Bill Gates' project that at its core has the production of nuclear power in the garage at home - based on waste from normal nuclear power plants).

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