With generous government subsidies and a green halo, wind power has been enjoying a lot of financial windfalls via governmental and local subsidies. Meanwhile, since being gutted by the Clinton administration in 1993, nuclear energy has been blocked so that it became increasingly less viable. For that reason, anti-nuclear activists thought Sweden would be a good target for their efforts, because they love to tout their lack of emissions. Yet the Swedes would end up with more emissions if they had added wind, according to new research. The Swedish power supply is mainly based on a combination of hydroelectric and nuclear power combined with power exchange with neighboring Scandinavian countries.
A study investigated the possibility of replacing nuclear power with wind power and found that because it is intermittent, a constant rate of consumption would necessitate a backup system, based on fossil fuel, namely cheap natural gas. But in such a scenario, the CO2 emissions would have doubled, which did not make sense on any level. So, Sweden has decided to return to nuclear in a big way...by building up to 10 new nuclear power plants over the next decade and retire a few order version containing out-of-date technology.
Working URL: http://www.science20.com/news_articles/why_sweden_says_no_to_replacing_nuclear_power_with_wind-174480
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