Sweden's parliament on Tuesday (20 June) adopted a new energy target, giving the right-wing government the green light to push forward with plans to build new nuclear plants in a country that voted 40 years ago to phase out atomic power.
Instead they opt for nuclear, with the foreign mining resource dependency, foreign enrichment facilities dependency, highest electricity price and unresolved waste problem.
We do need all kinds of energy in sweden right now. River powerplants are pretty much maximized (at least in the north). Wind is beeing built all over, but often rejected by local municipalities (don’t ask me why).
We have a serious issue with transporting energy from the north to the south, the cables are simply underdimensioned and that had pushed the prices up in the south. A looming industrial boom in the north will as of now actually lead to power shortage if that bottle neck can not be solved.
And here nuclear comes in. It’s really sad and quite dumb that several nuclear plants been shut down before their time. And it was not just an economical solution but an environmental one, the left will however not take responsibility for that decision.
Que the rights calls for new nuclear plants - which most likely will be way to expensive and won’t solve shortages in time.
EU joint energy market also drives prices in sweden well beyond reason.
In short - political decisions and indecision by several governments, have lead sweden onto a path to new nuclear instead of using existing plants as long as possible while building wind/solar in time where it’s really needed.
(I’m personally not against modern nuclear tech, although I truly hope we get fusion working at least during my lifetime)
Serious question, what options do they have? I don’t know enough about Sweden to comment.
Sweden is the 3rd largest country in the EU with only about 10.5 million people living there: https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/key-facts-and-figures/life-eu_en
They are already using hydro and wind for electricity generation (2022 ~64%, but already in 2015 ~59%: https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/energy_pie/chart.htm?l=en&c=SE&download-format=image%2Fpng&interval=year&year=2022) and could just increase those or add any other renewable with all the land and sea area they have to reach 100% independence and renewable.
Instead they opt for nuclear, with the foreign mining resource dependency, foreign enrichment facilities dependency, highest electricity price and unresolved waste problem.
We do need all kinds of energy in sweden right now. River powerplants are pretty much maximized (at least in the north). Wind is beeing built all over, but often rejected by local municipalities (don’t ask me why). We have a serious issue with transporting energy from the north to the south, the cables are simply underdimensioned and that had pushed the prices up in the south. A looming industrial boom in the north will as of now actually lead to power shortage if that bottle neck can not be solved. And here nuclear comes in. It’s really sad and quite dumb that several nuclear plants been shut down before their time. And it was not just an economical solution but an environmental one, the left will however not take responsibility for that decision. Que the rights calls for new nuclear plants - which most likely will be way to expensive and won’t solve shortages in time. EU joint energy market also drives prices in sweden well beyond reason. In short - political decisions and indecision by several governments, have lead sweden onto a path to new nuclear instead of using existing plants as long as possible while building wind/solar in time where it’s really needed. (I’m personally not against modern nuclear tech, although I truly hope we get fusion working at least during my lifetime)