Tanzania has exposed me to very many new and interesting things, such as kiti moto and dala dala, and not to forget one of the most delicious part of Tanzania, Ndovu. Thanks for Marcus for introducing these things for me at Dar es Salaam and Iringa!
One of the most interesting thing has been Tumaini University’s [...]
by Ilkka at November 04, 2009 07:50 PM
I think that I am in a dire need for a color analyst's help, you know the ones, who help you to find the power of colors in your life. The reason for this is that lately it has been so sadly that every time, when I happen to hear comments coming from a Finnish political party that uses green color in their symbols, I get an acute case of nausea.
Latest case that proved this to be true has been the discussion related to the number of new nuclear plants needed in Finland in future. A voice from yesterday's world said in media that he is willing to consider one additional plant, where as voice from some kind of cuckoo wonderland having nothing to do with reality said that she thinks no additional plants are needed in Finland.
Personally I find it very odd in first place, if politicians would now cast in stone some figure, such as 1, which would then limit the number of new nuclear plants allowed to be built in Finland in near future. The reason, why I find it odd, is that in my opinion, if all the applicants fulfill all the necessary demands set by legislation and have the necessary funding and plan for future waste management in place, then all of them should be granted the permission to build the plant. In free market economy, which I hope also Finland is, it should not be the politicians, who check their crystal balls and say how many new plants are needed - that is how things were ran in late Soviet Union, and mostly they were ran very badly.
Secondly, the energy coming from potential new plants would not be only added up to the present energy pool, but it would actually have to cover several sources that are now present, but will not be there in future. These include e.g. electricity imports from Russia and its not-so-up-to modern standards energy plants, old Finnish power plants still using fossil fuels, and the two oldest Finnish nuclear power plants that are during the coming decades slowly coming to the end of their life-cycle. Additionally, it is just fair to assume, that our life style in future will not turn into less electricity intensive, but it is more likely that the development will be contrary to that. One example is the common belief that more traffic in future will become ran on electricity instead of relaying on fossil fuels. All these things combined mean that there is demand for more energy in future, and this is also development on which the permission applying energy companies are putting their bet on, when calculating returns on their huge investments.
Thirdly, building nuclear plants will provide a great opportunity for Finnish companies involved in these projects to develop their capabilities and know-how in an area, which will be in great demand in future. There is great need for major scale electricity production in developing countries such as India. This need cannot be covered with solar or wind power, but nuclear plants, plenty of them, are needed. These kinds of projects taking place abroad offer opportunities also for Finnish companies to sell their accumulated knowledge. And in addition to exporting know-how, if there is energy surplus after all the national demand, there would be interesting opportunities in Baltic countries, where we could sell reliably produced energy, when they have closed the Soviet-era remnant, Ingalina Nuclear Power plant. Furthermore, unifying electricity markets in Europe offer additional interesting opportunities for Finnish electricity companies to sell their production, whether it has been produced from renewable sources or by splitting of nuclei.
Lastly, it is important to acknowledge that even if we solve our macro level electricity production needs with nuclear energy, there are still lot of local or micro level energy and electricity production demands that need to be covered through other means than by nuclear plants. Such local production is important e.g. from national security perspective, where nation's complete reliance on small number of large energy production plants would be a major risk taking. New local level power plant investments should mostly include either plants burning household waste or renewable energy plants based on for example wood pellets, solar panels, or wind mills. Such local demand, which would be in addition to the present and future global market demand, definitely would support Finnish companies working on those business areas and developing new technologies. Furthermore, as there seems to exist some demand from households and SMEs for energy produced from renewable energy sources, there will certainly be electricity companies that will supply that demand.
by Pasi Eronen (noreply@blogger.com) at November 04, 2009 01:46 PM
