'Renewable energy' is, alas, tilting at windmills

Date published: 2/21/2005

Had Debra Gemme not specified renewable energy sources as the way to reduce pollution from power plants, I would have agreed wholeheartedly with her letter ["Cleaner, renewable energy sources are what's needed," Feb. 6].

That headline, coupled with the technically inaccurate cartoon, would make one think that nuclear power, which has many benefits, is not a very good way to improve our air quality.

The technological facts are that nuclear power plants do not emit any gases from the nuclear system to the atmosphere, not even carbon dioxide. Thus, the nuclear plant is a clean source of energy as far as the atmosphere is concerned.

The editorial cartoon showing black smoke coming from two hyperbolic structures is inaccurate. These structures are cooling towers, where outside air flows across droplets of warm water that has been used to condense steam in the condenser.

The droplets are cooled by evaporation, collected, and run through the condenser again. The air leaving the cooling tower contains the evaporated water, and this vapor condenses when it hits the colder atmosphere.

Thus, you will see what looks like white smoke leaving the tower when in fact it is just water that has not been near the nuclear portion of the plant. In addition to not polluting the atmosphere, nuclear power is currently economically attractive.

Neither solar power nor wind turbines are currently close to economic (two to three times the cost of fossil or nuclear). Thus large numbers of these plants can be built only with large subsidies from the government. What we don't see in our utility bill, we will see in taxes.

Both solar and wind power are low-power density technologies and thus require much more land. This results in visual pollution and negatively affects the environment.

We have already heard Sen. Ted Kennedy complaining about a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod. There was a recent article about very high bat kills due to wind turbine blades.

Before I retired, I was an energy professional, both in industry and teaching at the college level. I am not against solar energy and wind power. They both have applications where they make both environmental and economic sense.

However, in my judgment, solar energy and wind power will not be implemented in sufficient numbers, due to high cost, to make the reduction in air pollution that nuclear power could if people were rational about nuclear power.

Charles D. Morgan

Spotsylvania

Date published: 2/21/2005