N E W S - I N D U S T R Y M A T T E R S
MIT calls for
nuclear power to
combat carbon
crisis
The future of a low-carbon
economy may have its roots in
nuclear power according to a new
MIT study: ‘The Future of Nuclear
Energy in a Carbon-Constrained
World’.
The report says that trying to
produce a radically low-carbon
economy without nuclear
reactors would cost two to four
times as much as one with.
In the past the reduction of
carbon emissions to combat
climate change has seen a focus
on ‘alternative’ energy sources
with special emphasis on wind
and solar power. The report adds
while such sources do have many
advantages, they also suffer
from a number of disadvantages,
such as lack of reliability, a large
geographical footprint, negative
environmental impact, and high
operating costs, as well as a
reliance on conventional fossil
fuel plants to maintain reliable
electrical power services.
Much of this is a matter of intense
debate, but MIT says one big
problem is that if the world is to
invest in a policy of deep decarbonatisation
by the year 2050,
there is a real chance it can
only be done at either massive
expense or the price of much
less electricity being available
at higher costs, lower standards
of living in both the developed
and developing world, and even a
shrinking global economy.
To prevent this from happening,
the MIT study says that nuclear
power with its zero-carbon
emissions must play a much larger
role in electricity generation on
a global scale. Today, the total
share of global nuclear power
as a primary energy source is a
mere five percent, with very little
growth in the West and some
countries actually abandoning
the technology.
8 October 2018
The people employed to lead these
programmes will come from a wide variety of
backgrounds and will be up-skilled leaders –
perhaps engineers
Academic warns: Soon it will be ‘Just in time
to be too late’
Few organisations are equipped to
respond to the challenge of reducing
their emissions when the new Zero
Carbon Bill becomes law, says a carbon
and energy management specialist
who is helping the country’s largest organisations
build capacity by training a
new breed of managers for the changes
ahead.
Norman Smith, an academic/consultant
hybrid, has for 25 years been developing
and delivering post-graduate level
capacity building programmes for all
sectors of the New Zealand economy
and Government.
A principal problem, he says, is senior
executives do not yet understand the
need to re-structure to achieve the trifecta
of benefits awaiting;
• increased productivity/performance
• reducing their carbon footprint
• saving (lots of) money by saving energy
“They are staying with organisational
silos which separate strategic/corporate
objectives for sustainability from
operational goals involving operational/
energy use activities.
“This fails to realise the game has
changed – forever – and these activities
must become integrated in order
to deliver overarching decarbonisation
targets.”
As a result, there is invariably an internal
disconnect and conflict between
managers occupying head office
based ‘staff’ roles but with no authority
and budget and others in positions with
the ability to effect change but no mandate
to develop strategic initiatives.
“It’s going to get worse as pressure
builds to ‘walk the talk', not just measure
their footprint but do something
about it.
"The people employed to lead these
programmes will come from a wide
variety of backgrounds and will be upskilled
leaders – perhaps engineers,
perhaps not - with diverse backgrounds.
Their intrapreneurship and
soft skills of internal advocacy and
building internal coalitions will be critical
to success.”
Once the Zero Carbon Bill becomes law
it’s likely, he says, that the Government
will lift its own game; right now while
hospitals and universities are building
capacity and developing carbon reduction
programmes, larger departments
appear to be slower off the mark.
Local government on the other hand
was investing in staff training on the
Carbon:Energy course delivered
through the Energy Management Association,
as were larger companies
such as Fonterra, Oji Fibres, Winstone
and Downers. (http://www.emanz.org.
nz/energy-and-carbon-manager-professional
training)
He says overseas deep retrofits had
proven many times the potential to
cost effectively reduce energy costs by
well over 50% - not just the 15% New
Zealand companies generally settled
for - while delivering productivity, decarbonisation
and many other benefits
which went straight to the bottom line.
www.tinyurl.com/GreenbizRetrofitProjects
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The Lorch executive team very pleased about the foundation of Lorch South Pacific (LSP): Cataldo Sposato (international
Lorch sales director), Wolfgang Grüb (Lorch owner and ceo), David Wilton (managing director LSP), Ronald Weber
(managing director and cso Lorch) and Stefan Krämer (cfo Lorch)
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