Dr. James L. Conca, Senior Scientist for UFA Ventures, INC.
October 17, 11 a.m.-Noon, ETRL 101
Congressional members have rolled out a “Green New Deal” that calls for a rapid shift to carbon-free energy requiring drastic measures to cut carbon emissions across the economy. Every true expert on the subjects of climate change and energy knows we need all non-fossil fuel energy sources, including nuclear, in order to reduce our carbon emissions in time to reign in the worst effects of global warming. While it is not scientifically possible to go carbon-neutral in 10 years, it is the type of goal that needs to be set in order to make enough of a difference in the time frame we have, which is about 20 years. Presently, America is 87% fossil fuel, split mostly between transportation and power. It took us 70 years to get to this point, so completely changing it in 20 years is a big, big lift requiring pretty radical changes. In fact, the only energy plans for electricity generation that have any hope of achieving any of the goals we need, in the time frame we need them, must have some form of the following:
– stop building any new fossil fuel plants
– stop closing existing nuclear power or hydropower plants that have been relicensed as safe by the NRC and the FERC
– build as many wind turbines as possible and site them along Tornado Alley first
– put rooftop solar on all new buildings, first where sunny days average >200 per year
– build new small modular reactors as fast as possible to load-follow, or buffer, the renewables. SMRs cannot melt down and all the other scary things have been fixed in our new designs
– follow the new plan by DOE to double hydropower — without building a single new dam
– secure sources of Li, Co, Fe and other metals needed to build the alternatives
– build a fleet of 150 million fully electric vehicles by 2040 with 100,000 charging stations
– streamline the process to site/approve high-voltage transmission lines and a smart grid
