(my emphasis added)
Solar could beat nuclear power?
Published on 1 March 2006
Pro-nuclear bias is stifling UK solar industry, academics warn
Researchers from London?s Imperial College have weighed into the UK energy debate with a claim that power from solar sources could exceed the nuclear industry?s current output before any new reactors could even begin operating.
Writing in the latest issue of Nature Materials, the academics argue that photovoltaic rather than nuclear energy should be the UK government's priority in planning future capacity.
The 12GW of electricity currently generated by UK nuclear power stations - around a sixth of the country's total output - is the same amount that it is predicted Germany will generate through photovoltaics by 2012.
As Britain has a similar sunshine profile to Germany, they argue, it could reach the 12GW mark by 2023 if production is expanded by 40% per year.
Lead author Professor Keith Barnham is critical of last year?s decision to halt the UK photovoltaic demonstrator programme.
?The UK is clearly taking a very different decision to its industrial competitors and, I believe, a less sensible one,? he writes.
One obstacle to the development of a competitive solar energy industry in the UK, according to the article, is a pro-nuclear bias within scientific and government establishments.
Pointing out that the UK Research Councils spent seven times more in 2004-2005 on nuclear fusion research and development than it did on photovoltaic research, Barnham says: ?Fusion is still perhaps 40 years away from being effectively developed and in any case is likely to produce electricity at one quarter the electrical power density which the solar cells that we are working on are already producing in London. It's absurd that these funding bodies are putting huge amounts of money into something that may not deliver rather than supporting something that already does.?
Barnham believes the UK should be investing in the new generation of quantum well photovoltaic cells that could produce twice as much electricity per unit area as systems now in use.
?These new cells are highly efficient and are based on technologies similar to those used for the amplifiers in mobile phones, so the ability to manufacture them on a large scale is already in place,? he writes.
