Swiss Resource Capital AG released a report on uranium in late 2018 declaring that climate change and the electric revolution make it necessary to rethink the power supply. – Nuclear energy is the only base load-capable energy source that can manage the balancing act between an enormously increasing demand for electricity and clean energy generation! Global energy demand has multiplied since the late 1980s. Nuclear power currently covers about 11.5% of the world‘s total energy needs. However, fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas, and crude oil, are still burned primarily to generate energy. The difference to the situation about 25 years ago lies in the increasing demand for the reduction of CO2 emissions and the increasingly noticeable phenomenon of "global warming“, glacial melting, rising temperature of seawater, etc. Above all, the energy-guzzling industrial nations and the emerging markets will have to increase their energy efficiency and improve their carbon footprint in the coming years.
The second important issue is the electric revolution that is about to begin, which will not only allow us to move almost 100% electrically in a few years‘ time, but will also bring with it a huge, additional surge in demand for clean energy. This cannot be achieved by burning coal, natural gas, and oil, firstly, and secondly the alternatives are renewable energies, which, however, require an enormous amount of time and money and, in addition, are not nearly capable of base loads without the lack of larger electricity storage facilities, or nuclear power, which can provide a great deal of energy in a CO2-neutral manner.
Some countries have long recognized this possibility of fast and almost clean energy generation and are now pushing ahead with the construction of new nuclear power plants [Others are dragging their economies into higher energy costs, e.g., Germany, Austria, etc.]. Supply gaps are unavoidable in the future without nuclear power. Even now, however, only 90% of the world‘s uranium requirements can be met from producing mines. However, the number of nuclear reactors is likely to double again in the next 10 to 20 years. The previous main supplier of uranium - Russia‘s arsenal of nuclear weapons - has virtually ceased to exist. Then where would the uranium come from? Existing mines can be expanded and new mines opened, but not at the current uranium spot price of approximately US$27.50 per pound. An enormous supply gap seems unavoidable - at least at the current market price. [This is misleading: the supply of uranium, and that remaining to be discovered, will likely last at least 100 years even with the new demand creased by the build-up of new large and small reactors. The uranium price will rise to meet the demand. Even then, fusion will likely be available, which will then need to be fueled by helium-3 that will be mined on the Moon (more). And this is exactly where investors should start thinking about now (2018) - with a strongly rising uranium spot price and an inevitable second uranium (stock) boom on the horizon.
Of particular note, base-load electrical capacity is the ability of a power plant to continuously and reliably supply electrical energy. These include nuclear power plants,
coal-fired power plants, gas-fired power plants, oil-fired power plants and steam power plants fired with substitute fuels. Block-type thermal power stations, biomass and biogas power stations can also be base load-capable under certain conditions, but fossil or renewable raw materials must also be burned for this purpose. The only base-load-capable electricity generation from renewable energy is from hydroelectric power plants, but this often requires a major intervention in nature.
Photovoltaic and wind power plants are not base load-capable due to their often strongly fluctuating generation and thus feeding into the grid.
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