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England's energy future
Two recent articles discuss England's energy future:
A short squib in the Chicago Tribune this morning says that the government has approved construction of the first new nuclear power plants in a generation. Like others, England is looking again at this technology as practical and environmentally friendly, in its own way. Of course some environmentalists disagree.
Seeing that article reminds me of the story in the December issue of Control Engineering about the natural gas fields off the coast of Norway now being used to heat homes in England, after pumping gas through a 1,200 km pipeline. One offshore field is expected to provide 20% of England's gas consumption for 40 years.
That pipeline sounds like a big deal in the sense of "look how far they have to go for energy sources," but in the greater scheme of things, it's really a pretty convenient option compared to bringing in tanker loads from many thousands of miles away. In the U.S. we get much our energy in ways that are just as complicated if not more so.
The nuclear energy approach makes a lot of sense given fuel availability and carbon footprint/greenhouse gas issues. It will be interesting to see how nuke plant construction could be updated once we move out of 1950's and '60's technology. These "first in a generation" plants in Europe and the U.S. will need a new generation of control technology, and it's ready to go.
England's energy future
January 11, 2008
Two recent articles discuss England's energy future:A short squib in the Chicago Tribune this morning says that the government has approved construction of the first new nuclear power plants in a generation. Like others, England is looking again at this technology as practical and environmentally friendly, in its own way. Of course some environmentalists disagree.
Seeing that article reminds me of the story in the December issue of Control Engineering about the natural gas fields off the coast of Norway now being used to heat homes in England, after pumping gas through a 1,200 km pipeline. One offshore field is expected to provide 20% of England's gas consumption for 40 years.
That pipeline sounds like a big deal in the sense of "look how far they have to go for energy sources," but in the greater scheme of things, it's really a pretty convenient option compared to bringing in tanker loads from many thousands of miles away. In the U.S. we get much our energy in ways that are just as complicated if not more so.
The nuclear energy approach makes a lot of sense given fuel availability and carbon footprint/greenhouse gas issues. It will be interesting to see how nuke plant construction could be updated once we move out of 1950's and '60's technology. These "first in a generation" plants in Europe and the U.S. will need a new generation of control technology, and it's ready to go.
Posted by Peter Welander on January 11, 2008 | Comments (0)
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