Renewables outpace nuclear in economies with 45% of world population

Wake up call for Japan that is slipping further and further behind in the renewables league tables. Too much invested political power and money in the nuclear inusrty here has kept the renewables market behind for too long.

Market leading. Cool technology. Fun problem solving. I'd love to get into it. Nuclear? If you take the blinders off, just a legacy of radioactive pollution piling up for tens of thousands of years. This isn't a hard choice. The only problem is why we don't stop those who benefit from stopping responsible societies.

It's not the nuclear problem you must stop. It's the nepotism behind it. Those who benefit from it want to make sure that their children and their children's children continue it. For this is POWER over the people.

In Calif, Mitsubishi and Sanyo make a new kind of solar panels. Calif will be all Solar Energy in a couple years. I live in Nevada and utility company has large solar panel farms and so houses are either yoyr own solar energy or subscrive solar electricty from utility company. Very cheap. Some people prefer solar panels on their roof so that they don;t have to pay utility cost. Check Wikipedia about solar energy in Calif or USA. N Calif is colder than S Calif. But Solar Energy is free and daytime sun is not hiding. Climate matters little. Don't compare Nevada. When less than 40 degree C, t is cooler. over that comfortable. Dry and if it rains a day drained people say. rajn meant dripping about 20 min in the evening or morning once in 2 weeks. Try to see same climate of your place in Japan and USA. Don't try east they have horrible weather all the time.

@toshiko

Even if it's colder in one place than another that won't be the determining factor. The percentage of sunshine hitting the panels rather than the ambient temperature will matter the most.

For example, solar panels work in Antarctica just fine, where they use solar and wind power for bases since they are too remote for fossil fuel supply lines. Season won't matter, it's more the location tendency for cloud cover and inclement weather. If it can work there, it can work anywhere ;)

Northern California versus south would have different tendencies of cloud cover but it won't matter the temperature of each. Hope that helps.

And the areas for solar are under utilized - check out the buildings around you and see how many have solar on them....

Nevada and New Mexico I think were touted as being enough to handle all of the USA's needs. Best cloudless states. Anywhere will do though. It doesn't have to be the "best" to be useful, as long as it's practical. I'm jealous of panel power commenters!

Take a few deserts of the world and panel them, and we're done. That would even be a worthwhile endeavour, but it would mean reduced oil dependency and fewer dictatorships that are supported by the USA in exchange for oil. They probably wouldn't like that too much

Love Japan technology and there's no doubt that the engineers can do the job, if given the chance to grow the sector even more

While I'm obviously concerned about the nuclear plants, they need to switch off the oil and coal plants first before the place turns into Beijing.

Can any of you read? Japan is one of the leading countries in renewable energy.

I love the way they say it's a nuclear industry report when it's actually a report from an anti-nuclear organisation. This in particular is a classic:

Solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy besides hydro-electric dams now supply more electricity than nuclear in Japan, China, India and five other major economies.

Japan has no nuclear power running at the moment, China is building up its nuclear power, as is India. As for the other major economies, I'll wager coal-burning Germany is one of them.

Years ago, US designated a County in NV as place to store nuclear waste buried. Harry Reid opposed amd casino owners opposed. Then southern NV people top to bottom opposed because waste will leak to Las Vegas$ etc. Obama had to scrap plan. NV energy mainly use solar pamel farms to supply electricity. Company is profittable and we pay way less. NV Energy chiaiman salary is usually higher than casino owner on annual top 10 list. Sun shine is free and uranium cost money/ Hot climate and everybody stay home with air conditioner full blast/

China is reputed to be building around 75 new nuclear reactors.

The stuff'll get blown over here on the prevailing winds if any of them go pop.

@nandakandamandaJUL. 17, 2015 - 10:55PM JST China is reputed to be building around 75 new nuclear reactors.

The stuff'll get blown over here on the prevailing winds if any of them go pop.

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In USA, China based solar panel makers are doing fine business along with Mitsubishi and Sanyo.

In the US only 13% of renewables? And this would be a first world country...

xin the United States the share of renewables was 13%, up from 8.5% in 2007.

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Some states in US differ than total %, Calif targets 100 %, NV at least south is 100 %, Oil and other mineral resource prevent renewable energy. In 1945, New Mexico had A bomb test. Then desert near current Vegas had underground test. Popularion was very very low then. Even so, cancer hospital was created later. population grew rapidly. And even different cancer patients in hospital, rich people support cancer hospital.

There is a perception that nuclear power is expensive. This is largely due to the high upfront costs in building or refurbishing nuclear reactors. But because these costs can be amortized over several decades, the end result is a low-cost reliable baseload source of electricity. Nuclear doesn’t increase your power bill. In fact, it helps keep it down.

@sflp: How about cost of uranium importef from Mongolia? Solar panel plants do not have high upfront costs in building as they only use flat land - no building as sun come from sky. No worry of accident like Fukushima.

Unfortunately, I think wind power will become less prominent for these reasons: 1) It's expensive to maintain (large wind farms require a lot of maintenance), 2) wind farms full of large turbines can be quite unsightly and 3) wind turbines are notorious for a large number of bird kills (birds can't see the large spinning blades clearly).

Solar--in regions where there are enough sunny days to justify the high initial installation cost such as southwestern USA, the Australian Outback and the deserts of the Middle East--will likely become the dominant form of renewable energy. But that will only be part of the future energy equation; we'll also likely see new, vastly safer forms of nuclear power such as the molten-salt reactor (MSR), which are vastly safer to run than today's pressurized reactors (there's no such thing as a fuel core meltdown with an MSR). And MSR's can use thorium-232 as nuclear fuel, highly advantageous given thorium is as common as elemental lead in the soil.

toshiko JUL. 18, 2015 - 06:51AM JST Solar panel plants do not have high upfront costs in building as they only use flat land - no building as sun come from sky. No worry of accident like Fukushima.

Solar energy has been proven to be every efficient on a small scale, as in individual homes. Solar energy has proven to be totally inefficient on a large scale. My question is, why aren't the electric companies pushing home owners to install solar systems that tie back to the electric grid thus reducing the need for electric power to homes and generating electricity for the power company, which in turn reduces our dependance on coal?

@sf; You have points. In nevada, originally some home owners install rooftop solar panel but now NV Utility has solar energy supplies and so homes do not have to purchase solar panels. Rooftop is out of dated in NV. Either gas or electricity If you want to buy new dryer, you have to mention that your house is electricity line only, no gas. Like Calif, Utility company prefer own solar panel farm than home owner install its own as that is a loss of customers

Even if it's colder in one place than another that won't be the determining factor. The percentage of sunshine hitting the panels rather than the ambient temperature will matter the most.

You need the rain to was the dust off the solar panels from time to time. Unless enjoy getting on the roof and scrubbing panels.

Solar energy has been proven to be every efficient on a small scale, as in individual homes. Solar energy has proven to be totally inefficient on a large scale. My question is, why aren't the electric companies pushing home owners to install solar systems that tie back to the electric grid thus reducing the need for electric power to homes and generating electricity for the power company, which in turn reduces our dependance on coal?

http://www.gosolarcalifornia.ca.gov/csi/rebates.php

Solar panels are not on rooftops and Utility company takes csre of diirt on their panel farm, Big business?Casinos including over 30 story high casino hotels are customer of NV Utility and full blast of AorCpn. 24 hrs a day. Don't b;ame NV There is no nucl power plant and no coal available. Gas is for cars.