Nuclear energy is no longer an option; Nuclear energy was thought to be the solution to ending our reliance on fossil fuels, and consequently an effective way of combating our output of greenhouse gases, and climate change. However, since the nuclear power plant disaster in Japan this is no longer an option.
A clean, green alternative source of power is the free solar energy that is given out by the sun. The government is currently encouraging home owners to have solar panels installed in their homes through their FIT scheme.
This allows eligible homeowners to have solar panel installations installed in their homes free of charge, which turn free solar power into free electricity. Any free electricity the free solar panels do not use is simply fed into the National Grid, which the solar panel installers claim back the money for from through the utility companies.
The nuclear plant disaster in Japan may not be covered by the media anymore, but the fears for the state of the reactors are still ever present. The only way that we will be able to tell how much damage the disaster caused is with the passing of time. However, the political implications of the disaster are already becoming apparent. In Germany, hundreds of protesters took part in a demonstration against the use of nuclear power, and waved placards which read ‘Nuclear power no thanks’. Germany’s government have already shut down several nuclear power plants, and China has also reduced the number of nuclear plants they planned to build too.
Without nuclear plants it does pose a problem, in that where is the world going to get all of our energy from? At the beginning of the year people were expecting a ‘renaissance’ for nuclear power. It seemed that nuclear power was the only alternative to end our reliance on fossil fuels. Today, nuclear power provides the world with 15% of our energy, which was predicted to grow- however this now seems unlikely. Our energy needs are constantly increasing; and one source of energy that does not rely on fossil fuels, contributing to the problem of greenhouse gases, and which makes an alternative to nuclear power are renewable energy sources such as solar energy. Source
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