Malaysia to go nuclear by 2023

Malaysia will turn to nuclear energy to generate electricity by 2023 as supplies of fossil fuel eventually run out, Energy, Water and Communications Minister Shaziman Mansor said. The use of nuclear energy was also an alternative to counter high global oil prices. "I will be briefing the cabinet in a fortnight. We have no choice but to start the ball rolling," he said. "You cannot say you want to use nuclear power in the next few months, and expect everything to be in place."

State utility Tenaga has said it could construct the country's first 1,000 MW nuclear power plant at a cost of US$3.1 billion after being asked by the government to look at the option amid surging global oil prices and the country's limited supply of oil and natural gas. Currently, half of Malaysia's power plants run on gas. Other sources include coal and hydropower.

- It is interesting how the original article was titled "Malaysia to resort to nuclear energy by 2023" and it shows how titles can have a big impact on reader perceptions. Putting "to resort to" might imply that there is no other choice, just like that Malaysian minister said.

But then, realistically speaking, there are really not many other choices if what one is looking for is a reliable supply of baseload electricity. I've gone through this before and more than once, but if you want electrical power that's available at least 90% of the time, at the current state of the art, you basically have a choice of fossil fuels (fuel or diesel oil, natural gas, coal), nuclear, and perhaps hydro and geothermal, the last two being limited to a small sub-set of suitable geographical locations.

That's it. Barring a technological revolution in grid-scale battery backup of electrical power, the effective generating capacity of intermittent sources such as wind and solar will remain at only around 20%. Nuclear power is the logical next step for an energy-hungry economy, and in time that will give way to the logical next step : space-based solar power.

Nissan starts PHEV plug-in hybrid development, to introduce electric car concept at 2008 Paris Motor show

greencarcongress.com [EV] :

Nissan has started development of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). In May, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said the company will introduce an all-electric vehicle in the US and Japan in 2010 and globally in 2012. In 2007, Nissan, NEC and NEC TOKIN Corporation established Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC) to develop lithium-ion batteries for automotive applications including hybrids, plug-in hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and electric vehicles. Nissan will also unveil a new electric concept car at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. The Nissan Nuvu electric car concept is intended to be a "new view" of the type of car we will be driving in the middle of the next decade. Compact at 3 meters long, Nuvu offers 2+1 seating. The vehicle incorporates a dozen or so small solar panels across its roof.

- We have a couple of things to thank for the recent surge of car-maker announcements on plugin hybrid vehicles (PHEV's) and electric vehicles (EV's) : the record oil prices earlier this year, and the hype that GM managed to drum up for its upcoming Chevrolet Volt. And let's not forget the Tesla Roadster for resurrecting the EV revolution, and Toyota and Honda for their pioneering efforts in bringing hybrid cars to the market.

Despite all the hype and rush for announcements, let's not forget that these are still very early days yet. Toyota has been selling the Toyota Prius for over a decade and it was only in the past couple of years or so that sales have really picked up pace, and still, their hybrid sales continue to be a small part of the overall picture.

It takes time and money to change the global car fleet and support infrastructure, a process that will take at least 2 or 3 decades and trillions of dollars in investment. Humanity has been really late getting started - we've got about another 2 decades to go and global Peak Oil is looming in about 2 years. If you haven't already noticed, times are certainly getting interesting. Whether we can make it or not is a question that is still very much up in the air.

(2008-09-21 10:43:58 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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