Solar+batteries versus nuclear (1) The costs

For many years there is an annual status report on nuclear energy and the plants in the world. It is called ‘World Nuclear Energy Status Report’. It contains questions about the number of plants, the development and of course the assesment of the future.
Also the competition with the renewables (solar and wind energy) is part of it.

Since the renewables become cheaper every year, it is time to check for our costs. Would it be possible, affordable, welcome and sustainable to take solar, with a big battery bank, as an alternative for nuclear power?

In this blog we compare the costs.

The development of nuclear reactors

The picture here under shows the number of nuclear reactors now under construction.

Of the 59 plants under construction shown here, there are 27 in China. Is that a lot? Well, last year in China only 1 GigaWatt was added by nuclear power, versus 200 GigaWatt on solar power.

The USA, the early adaptor of nuclear power, did not build any reactors.

So actually, nuclear energy seems to be unattractive.

In the picture here under, there is an overview of all nuclear power plants existing in the world.

This graph says: from 1985 the number of installed nuclear reactors is diminished and the number of closed reactors is higher. Since 2023, when renewable energy competes, the number of new nuclear plants started to become smaller. (Source: Scheinder et al, The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2024 )

The graph clearly shows an upheaval from 1985. This is caused by the Chernobyl disaster in April 1986 and the following public opinion. This will be discussed in the next blog.

But, the nuclear power never became big again. And, from 2024 we even see it going down. Or, is that incidental?

Further development of solar panels and batteries vs nuclear

Year after year the solar panels become cheaper and more efficient. In general, the renewable energy cost less than the fossil and the nuclear energy. We see the same with the batteries: they become cheaper, with a higher efficiency. The costs per kWh sharply become less. We donot see this sharper curve on the technology of nuclear energy.

Nuclear power versus solar+battery power

The nuclear power plant has always the great advantage that it delivers power when there is no sun (and no wind). The only operational issue is that you can not easily stop it and switch it on again. A complete stop or start up, costs a lot of energy.

The solar panel and battery bank don’t have that ‘start-stop’ problem. When there is sun, electricity flows into the battery (and into the network) and when the sun stops shining, the battery takes over.

On the other hand, the battery is limited and the nuclear power plant can run endlessly. That is true for now, but it is getting less true. Since the solar and battery technology is getting more efficient and also cheaper, you simply install big battery banks. So, when there is no sun for one day, it is no problem. And for the near future, and with the current development, the battery banks will be bigger. The real relevance of the nuclear power plant gets smaller.

India just installed a solar+battery power plant which delivers cheaper electricity than a coal combustion plant, while the latter had always been the cheapest.

Net congestion and the home battery

Countries in the transition from gas to electricity, always have the problem of net congestion: it can happen that there is too much electricity running through the network. That would stop the whole system, so there is limited electricity. A complete new infrastructure would cost hunderds of billions, which is simply not possible.

Just an example. The red areas have astructural net congestion in middle Holland

A net congestion creates a lot of damage. A Dutch study shows that a company can not expand, caused by net congestion, it costs that company 11.000 Euro per mWh. This damage is about a hunderd fold of the normal tariff for a mWh.

But every installation of a home battery and solar panels, will relieve the net. This would save a lot of money for replacing cables in the streets, junction boxes, fuses, electricity stations, everything.

The nuclear energy however, would do the opposite, it creates net congestion. All infra structure, from power plant to the households and companies, have to be made larger, heavier. Only in the Netherlands this would cost tens of billions.

Waste costs and ‘external’ costs

The value of the solar panels and (lithium) batteries lowers, year by year. Finally, it will cost a bit to dismantle them. In general, the complete costs from the cradle to the grave are not high, and known and foreseeable.
The dismantling of a nuclear power plant costs a lot, if we want to prevent the risks on big environmental damage and great safety risks. Although they are foreseeable, they are seen as ‘external costs’. Only, when in 1997 the nuclear plant of Dodewaard was stopped and the new owner would take care for it, the dismantling costs were accepted to be internal costs. For safely reasons, they have to wait till 2045 to dismantle it. And now, it appears that the owner doesnot have enough money for it. Will the owner become bankrupt? This is an example that the costs for dismantling could still become ‘external costs’, meaning that it is the taxpayer who has to pay it.

Also on the risks of nuclear disasters the costs are categorised as ‘external costs’. Although the accidents occur already since the existence of the first plants. Meanwhile, we statistically know that these costs are there, but you will not find them in the business case.

Then, there are the costs of sustainable nuclear waste treatment. In particular the final dump is often an unsolved problem. The costs are mostly underestimated, or pushed forward. But, after so many accidents, and with much nuclear waste on unsustainable places, more and more people open the eyes and see these costs. In Finland a plant is built with the inclusion of the nuclear waste treatment. See this film . The construction time and costs doubled. We are talking many billions here.

Finally, it is remarkable that in the USA everybody seems to have abandoned the nuclear energy. The USA has a strong private law jurisdiction. This gives a victim of an accident the opportunity to an claim enormous amounts of money from a company responsible for the cause of an accident. Here appears a relation: if one already includes the costs of a risk for the claims from an accident, a nuclear power plant could be way to expensive.

Conclusion

If we really count all costs, so including the dismantling and the disaster management, the solar+battery combination wins already.

Still, politicians who are in favour of nuclear energy plants, externalise the waste treatment and risk costs, and put forward the argument that nuclear technology is ‘state of the art technology’. Most probably the development of solar and battery economy will make nuclear technology old fashioned.

But before that happens, you can read the next blogs in the following weeks, which will address the risks, the sustainability and the politicians dealing with it.

The diesel engine exchanged for electric motor

Some days ago a quite little sailing ycaht entered the Taohae’ bay here in Nuku Hiva. It is the Mayola, of only 10 meter, which is the smallest yacht of the 50 yachts in the bay.

On board are Gustayo and Daniela. They had a beautiful trip of 44 days, in one stretch from Panama to here.

When the Mayola passed the Ya, you could not hear an engine nor smell diesel fumes. Electric motors?

Yes indeed. Gustavo showed it all. Not only with pride, but also with enthousiasm. He took one hour to tell it all. We know the advantages like no noise, little maintenance, silent, and more, and here we focus on the particulars of his story.

Gustavo shows the 86% level of the batteries: “Already soon after the start of the trip we had full batteries, because we charge. Did you know that on the sunny days we used the motor to get the level lower than 100 %?

“The battery level now is lower, because we wanted to use the motor into this deep and windstill bay. And the last 2 days of little sunshine didnot help either. However, we never had a shortage on battery power. Never.”

Preparation – a lot of space

Since the diesel engine is exchanged for an electric motor on board the yacht, there are so much advantages, like more space, more safety.
Gustavo tells his story with enthousiasm.
Gustave has seen pictures of an exchange of a dieselengine (left) for an electric motor  (right) and he noticed the space you could gain in the engine room.

When Gustavo opens his engine room, you first see a pile of boxes now. These consist of all his tools and materials. Here, the pile is lowered to show already some depth. On the upper side of the picture, there is the battery bank of 30 kiloWatthour.

With the camera closer into the engineroom, you see right under the motor. The battery bank is on top and on the left side there is space left for other tools and spare parts.

Usage is the key

You nee another attitude towards your energy. If you use energy without any reflection on what you have, then you will not make it. But, if you are willing to think about it, and you have a good set of solar panels and perhaps a wind turbine, it should be easy. Or, at least here on board it is easy.

Actually, Daniela doesnot agree. Or better: she doesnot know. She works often on the laptop and she is often worried if there is enough energy on the long run. Actually that makes sense; it underscores the statement that one should have reflection. Daniela never got the chance to reflect on the energy use, since Gustavo  is keeping all data of the energy use and regeneration for himself, on his own cell phone…. Look at the picture here under

The app on the cell phone of Gustavo shows all energy data, from general to detail, So he has a refined knowledge and awareness of the energy household.

Charging with the propeller – the further you go, the safer your energy.

The charging power of the electric motor is difficult to measure, because the meter goes up and down every second. But in general we are pretty sure about this: when doing 5 knots, we easily charge over 50 Watt, When we do 6 knots, we do 100 Watts. And the funny thing is, we even didnot change our propeller for this new motor!”

Gustavo adds:”With a diesel engine on the ocean, you always worry that you keep enough energy till the end of your trip Because it can only get down. But when you charge with your motor, it is the opposite: you always have plenty energy on your arrival.”

Saillink ferry: sustainable travel pleasure between France and the UK

It was summer 2020, in the little harbour of Rye, near Dover, England, that we met Jim with his catamaran and Andrew Simons. Andrew just started the initiative of Saillink as a try out. Saillink would become the sustainable ferry crossing the Channel. We wrote a blog about it: Ya meets soulmates from Saillink.

Andrew and Jim were checking out if a regular ferry service would work out there. It should be sustainable, with (nearly) no emissions. So sailing. Then, they were sailing in the Channel area and tried out all options under varying circumstances.

Would their initiative work?

Saillinks catamaran is the only sustainable ferry crossing the Channel, on the route Dover-Boulogne.

Yes, the sailing ferry works out very well. The catamaran, called Echoes, is sailing from Boulogne to Dover and back. The experience of being at sea, breathing the fresh salty air and sniffing the sailing adventure, the sails moving you and the ship, all this generates the traveling experience again.

In this film you’ll get a hunch of it.

Forbes Magazine: The New Eco Friendly Startup Sailing between France and the UK

It is a startup, and the operation is starting effectively now, in 2025. So yes, Saillink is in the race. But competing against the fossil mastodons is not easy. So Saillink started a crowdfunding. Click and be part of it, and help this startup with your bit.

We ended our ‘social’ media

Ethics are a big part of our social life, if it is not the driving part. The social media are drifting away from our ethics. So sorry guys, but we stopped with them. We canceled our subscriptions to Twitter/X, to Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp.

From X to ZIP

We saw Twitter changing from a platform where you can be challenged to write a brief but strong note, to a septic tank for negativities. Mr. Elon Musk showed and performed his political ambitions and this social medium is coursing its way from any sort of sustainable, or social standard.

Sorry, it is too much to stay here. Many people started boycotting X and stepped to Blue Sky. Fossil Free Around the World doesnot boycot the medium, but just wants to stay away from it, since it is not social, in any sort of way but the negative one. We go for zip media.

Zuckerberg free

The same is for the Meta media of mr. Mark Zuckerberg. These media are misused in the 2016 US elections and violated several laws and standards about privacy and ethics (Facebook-Cambridge Analytica incident ) . Mr. Zuckerberg excused himself publicly for these lacks of action. But meanwhile, European data protection law propositions were formed (in constant cooperation with Meta) and later these laws took effect. Meta (then called Facebook) violated them and the EU gave warnings. It did not help. Then (in 2018) the EU fined Meta . Meta continued to violate the laws on dataprotection and in 2023 Meta had to pay a total of 1.2 billion Euro.

1.2 billion Euro is not that much for a company making 160 billion last year with a revenue of 30 billion for selling the profiles of each of us. (The revenue is so big, because we ourselves put in our personal data in their databases under Facebook, Instagram, et cetera.)

However, in stead of paying the fine, Mr. Zuckerberg chose to pay several millions to be part of Mr. Tumps inauguration for president of the USA. This is a political move to save Meta from paying the EU’s fine.

These are not the ethics we stand for. Or legally, Meta commits a crime. We don’t want to be associated with criminals. Let us call the boss of it all neatly Mark Z.

Fossil Free Around the World – and its Dutch counterpart Duurzaam Jacht- has terminated the subscriptions on Meta products Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp.

We are Zuckerbergfree.

Historical reason

The pre-Millenium reader remembers the first years of internet in the nineties and early 2000s. Internet was for us. Nowadays the internet is a data harvesting machine, and these data go to the so called Big Tech companies, about 6 in total. They make profiles of your data and sell them to companies for direct advertising.
Nowadays the internet is for these Big Tech, or Big Data companies. We lost the internet as a free medium and if we want to have an advertisement free medium, we pay about $10 per subscription link (from 2025 not possible anymore, you have to accept less personalized ads for $5/month). And still, your data are harvested.

Helping sustainability

Please realize that the richest 19 persons of the world create 10% of the environmental impact. So the poorer you make the rich, the better off is Mother Earth, and so our children.

Alternatives

Signal is the replacement for Whatsapp. It is built by the original Whatsapp developer/owner, who sold it to Mark Z. if every user would Signal.org just one dollar per year, Signal can continue forever.

A website paid by yourself as the alternative for ‘social’ media, costs you about 100 Euro per year (except for the first year to build it, costs you 500 Euro). Then, you also get some email adresses.

Every family member can have its own email adress and on the website each member can have has its page. So for example the family vandervelde:

www.vandervelde.fam

Dick has page www.vandervelde.fam/dick and his email is dick@vandervelde.fam

Lisa has page www.vanderveld.fam/lisa and her email is lisa@vandervelde.fam

There are more alternatives.

Android can be made less bad with https://developer.android.com/privacy?hl=en

Apple phones can be made less bad with the Privacy Report-function

A fairer world

It costs you some effort, but, this way we will get our internet back.

And, the world will be a bit fairer.

Catching lobsters from Ya’s bottom

The bottom of the Ya was not scraped for some months here in Nuku Hiva bay. See the movie and it looks like a complete nature reservation, an eco system, whatever.

Also some lobsters are living there. What to do with them? They won’t survive an ocean trip we guess. So Rik passed by to hunt them. Peter did the underwater camerawork.

And Mother Nature brought us all this.

Enjoy

How sustainable is the Marquesian fishing industry?

I dare say, The Marquesian fishing industry is one of the most sustainable fishing indrustries in the world. Here a 2 minute movie of the industrial process.

Cleaning the fish

Next to the nature features, also consider the sustainability of the labor circumstances.

Compare this to the European industry and draw your conclusion.
Let us not forget that we human beings are most happy with simple, understandable, processes, on a human size.
And by the way, that is often sustainable too.

Cars on solar power

First we saw ­solar panels on the roofs on campers. That must have been in the early 1980s.

Such panels helped to fill the service batteries for the fridge and the lights. It saves you to run the engine while on a beautiful and silent camping spot

In these days, only a fool could think that it would be enough to drive a car with it.

But, fools inspire!

Already in 1987 the World Solar Challenge started: the challenge was to cross Austalia on solar power only. Who is the fastest?

Every race, Dutch technology students work on a better car and often the Dutch win.

Now, we see already solar panels mounted on the roofs of electric cars.

And there is progression, because soon there came an integrated design.

Toyota has put the integrated design on the Prius.

Here is the first design of the Lightyear. The future of solar driven cars is pretty close.

Again it is the students who take the challenge and here they are working on the first sully solar driven family car.

So, also in times of bad politics,we can remain optimistic. Because when the will stays, people continue to improve, to innovate. No worries.

The Velomobile is like the ‘Ya’

Just like Sustainable Yacht ‘Ya’ can come everywhere on nearly any remote place at sea or at lakes, the Velomobile can come everywhere on land. And, both without using a single drop of fossil fuels.

The Velomobile is a bike-with-a-smart-skin.

The skin is a capsule, hyper aerodynamic, and it is you who just fits in that capsule. You can bike like any biker, with two big advantages:

First, you stay dry. Second, you can get a speed of 25-30 km/hour and maintain that speed.n Third, they are often used to commute and that saves a lot of money on driving a car (and petrol).

The high speed is possible because that capsule is so beautifully shaped, that the resistance has become really low. So it is easy to drive. And -fourth advantage- it is fossil free!

In the Netherlands, a real bikers country, there are an awful lot of Velomobiles.

Investing in sustainability

Advising in investments is tricky, advising in sustainable investments is the same.

But here is some information to give an idea.

The main rule or investing your money is, to invest little bits in many places. Never bet on one horse. So, you can put you money in solar panels, windmills, in hydrogen, in smart grid, whatever, but never put all in one thing or company.

The market of financial products for sustainable investmenst offers already a diversity of options.

You can put your money in shares of companies. You buy them in the stockmarket, at a broker. That is rather cheap. You buy could buy stocks from a hydrogen company like Air Products, Liquide, Plug Power. But, you have to dive deep down into the activities of these companies. For example, most of the hydrogen is made out of gas (methane), and that is not sustainable; they should make it out of water, with the use of renewable energy.

You can also invest in funds. A fund charges a percentage of management fee, purchase and selling fees and that is a disadvantage. Advantage is that you can choose funds with each its own mix of investments. Like only solar, or ‘renewables’ which is generally solar and wind. Or funds for water. Often it is the best to go for the conventional sustainable funds. In Holland the ASN bank and Triodos bank have funds.

There are much more funds and investmen varieties. Such as ‘Impact Investing’, which is a broader thing. Such as SRI (Social Responsable Investment) or ESG (Environmental and Social Government Investing). Check this for more about that.

You can also choose for emission rights. In Europe there is an ETS Emission Trading Scheme, set up by the European Union government. In that scheme, a company gets a certain amount of emission rights. If the company wants more to emit, it can buy extra emission rights, from companies who emit less. So the lesser you emit, the more profit you could make. You, as a private, can also buy these emission rights. You get a paper, an ETF, prooving you are the owner. If you are an activist, you simply throw away the paper and there are less emissions to emit. What you see now, is that these ETFs grow in value. Read this for more info.

There are many many sorts of ETFs for sustainability purposes to invest. But realize, they can go up and down.

Most investments are interesting if you put in like 1000 Euro or much more. But nice to mention is that there is the Enerfip , and this already works a bit from 10 Euro. So there is always a start to invest in sustainability.