Arno's EnergyIdeas (13)
About ads and what they mean to say
In our media are not only editorial contributions, but also the ads say a lot about current situations and their readers. Some headlines from ads in recent days:
"We are a reliable partner to our customers. This will continue in the future." (Bayern LB, a state owned German bavarian bank). "Good for you. Good for all. "(The German private health insurance). "Every day the smartest route" (TomTom navigation system). "Wines with a sense of touch" (advertising department Süddeutsche Zeitung). Formerly these slogans were known as: "Red-wine Headlines." We always imagined how smart eccentric, highly payed advertisment gurus thought about such headlines with red wine and stereo music.
Back to the present, there are more and more ads with headlines like: "Moveing ahead to be the first to create CO ²-neutral sources of energy plants on an area of 10,000 football fields." (RWE AG) or: "Germany's unloved climate safer" (= Information Group Nuclear Energy) appear.
This means, however: "Oppass mutt warn" (Low German, a special Hamburg accent: "You should be careful"). One should look and question more precisely, what the advertisers want to say, as these ads most likely will cost millions of Euro.
RWE continues in its ad: ".. So we will, under strictly environmental point of view, in the next four years, plant 10,000 hectares with energy-plants... In this form of energetic heat and power generation, not more CO ² will be released, as the plant has previously taken in. A good reason to invest in this climate friendly offspring... "
But with offspring probably the energy plant is meant. What may be the “energetic heat and electricity production” mean? Here RWE AG takes us to a century old technology, were the forests are cut down and burned. From boiling water, steam will be generated and routed in a turbine, who drives a generator to produce electricity. With efficiencies of around 35%, but calculated only from the moment onwards, when the fuel is in the courtyard of the power plant.
But that's not enough: The electricity from the generator is beeing transformed and sent over a miles long grid network and later, at the place of the consumption, transformed down again in variuos stages. As a result further losses of at least 10%, probably rather more, will be created. All in all, a procedure, on which we could be proud of at the time of its formation. However, today it is not ecologically justifiable any longer. The question may be allowed: Who reconsiders these systems or where are the alternatives? Or are there none?
The advertisment of Information Circle Nuclear Energy (Informationskreis KernEnergie) looks similar:
It states :"... The protection of our climate is one of our most urgent tasks - we need the CO ² emissions to be reduced significantly. That is why we are exploring renewable energy sources and develop them further. But for the foreseeable future, wind, water and sun cannot secure our energy needs... "
Who is "we" in this context? I have no information whatsoever regarding activities of the Information Circle Nuclear Energy in the development of renewable energies. Or has something been overlooked by me? Back to the text: ".. About one quarter of Germany's electricity and nearly half of the base load is from nuclear energy - climate without CO ² emissions ..."
Uranium-supplying countries are Canada and Australia, as well as Niger and Namibia. Smaller amounts are coming from countries such as Uzbekistan, Russia or Kazakhstan. The current excavate uranium reserves are certainly not renewable.
At this point we won't give any thoughts to the generation of CO ² during the processes of uranium mining, processing, conversion, enrichment and transport. And by the way, after the actual power generation in nuclear power plants follows the same laws of thermodynamics as outlined above, but in addition there are open issues such as: cooling ponds, short-term storage and the unsolved problem of long-term storage of used uranium fuel rods. But as long as all this is: "... without CO ² emissions ...", as the ad suggests, we can settle back.
That reminds me of an earlier ad: "There is much to do out there. Let's tackle the problem !" (ESSO AG), which were released at quite different times. Or maybe not? And who is then "us"?
Links to news:
http://www.kernenergie.de/
http://www.rwe.de
https://www.hydrogenambassadors.com/background/facts.php # electricityfromnuclear
I would be glad to work with you on these or other energy thoughts in a dialogue.
You can reach me at: arno@hydrogenambassadors.com
Date: 20.05.2008 |