Give Renewables a Chance

The 'spiralling cost' of energy seems to be a very popular way to describe the fluctuations in the price of oil these days. As news pundits try to dramatise the issue for maximum effect, the world is whipped into a frenzy and advocates of nuclear power are rubbing their hands with glea.

For the price of oil, as well as concerns over the environment, do their corner no harm at all it seems. Governments are (in the West) talking up the prospect of nuclear power as some sort of win-win fix to the world's present 'energy crisis'.

Don't you just wish they'd hold up a minute? Whilst it's good news that the world gets used to paying more for its energy (for all sorts of reasons), the recent increases in the price of oil are not sustainable. Higher costs will at some point dampen demand, which will see prices fall.

Setting aside all debate about the rights and wrongs of nuclear power, lets hope that this frenzy does not give way to any sudden leaps in terms of policy. The world is waking up to the need to find alternative sources of energy, but let it make a reasoned choice and give plenty of time for alternatives to bubble to the surface.

We're an ingeneous lot and it would be a shame to reach for the first alternative to hand / the shortest path (i.e. the atom). Subsidies for nuclear power could quickly kill off the search for better alternatives. For example such as more efficient solar technologies like that developed by MIT (link below) which could yield massively more energy compared to conventional solar panels:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/solarcells-0710.html

Just why are so many taking a very rose-tinted view of nuclear power these days? Surely there's no truth in conspiracy theories that suggest the richer countries want nuclear power to win through because of the leverage it offers them in terms of controlling access to it by other less well off countries (on grounds of security for example).