The Mochovce Nuclear Power Plant cooling towers in Mochovce, Slovakia. - File

The Editor, Sir:

Modern societies need large amounts of energy, and demand will only increase as they develop. The energy of choice is electricity.

Although hydrocarbon fuels, e.g. coal, oil, and gas still generate most of the world's electricity, there is increasing awareness that this cannot go on. Not only are hydrocarbons diminishing resources, but they produce large amounts of greenhouse gases, and their production and transport despoil the environment. The air quality concerns in Beijing provide a case in point.

The current extreme volatility of oil's price is only the beginning of what lies ahead, and Jamaica, with its electricity generation firmly tied to oil should be examining every alternative.

Oil's absolute unavailability, though real, is less a worry than its rapid and extreme price movements. It is possible that either absolute oil shortage, or more likely, its price will make it very difficult to maintain electricity supplies or road traffic here.

What then? Can we say it could not have been foreseen? Finding alternatives to oil is not an option, it is an urgent necessity.

It is possible, as many countries show, to generate electricity without hydrocarbon fuels. The options include the rapid rise of solar and wind use, along with older technologies like hydro and nuclear. It might surprise some to learn that nuclear provides about 18 per cent of the world's electricity.

Nuclear generation

Sixteen countries currently generate more than 25 per cent of their electricity from nuclear, and for five of those countries, it is 50-80 per cent. Nuclear seems set to become dominant in power generation. Why?

It generates no greenhouse gases, can bring huge capacity to practically anywhere, and, importantly, no other alternative with these characteristics currently exists. We should be looking at this.

Some countries already have substantial oil independent infrastructure. Many use other hydrocarbons such as coal and gas, which is not much different, while others have substantial hydro-electric resources, or use nuclear.

Many of these societies have mass-transit systems driven by electricity, an option we have already discarded in the old tramcar system. We are not, however, without options, and the Government's lack of urgency on solar technology is baffling. Solar might currently be unsuitable for base load at JPS, but it can be applied on a wide scale now, and all options to reduce its cost and encourage its adoption should be examined. The main problem with solar and wind is their inherently intermittent nature, and while electricity storage using current battery technology is cumbersome and expensive, it works, and the technology is rapidly improving.

Non-carbon technology

The Government deserves some commendation here for promoting ethanol's use in transportation in an effort to reduce oil consumption in transportation. It's a first step, but ultimately, the goal must be the adoption of non-carbon fuels in transportation, and various solutions are in view.

A world where power plants use non-carbon technologies to generate electricity and electric vehicles rule the streets is one which has largely solved its greenhouse gas problems.

I am, etc.

MICHAEL R. NICHOLSON

kovsky54@yahoo.com

Kingston 6