Scientists Call for a Moratorium on All New Fossil Fuel Power

No new fossil fuel power plants. No new coal-fired plants, no new natural gas plants. Nuclear power plants? None of those, either.

That’s the big ask of a letter three high-profile scientists have just published in Nature Materials; they want a moratorium on new fossil fuel power. The scientists, Keith Barnham, Kaspar Knorr, and Massimo Mazzer, note that “an all-renewable electricity supply is possible with existing technologies,” and go on to write that “We therefore feel confident in calling for a moratorium on all forms of electricity generation except on the renewables as the quickest way to lower carbon emissions.”

Renewable energy technology, especially solar photovoltaics, has already become inexpensive enough to displace new fossil fuel power. Good thing, too; climate change is accelerating, and scientists have been urging a rapid drawdown of carbon emissions for years. With the proper policy incentives, the trio argues, we can cease building coal and gas plants altogether, right now, without any major economic disturbance.

Some key points from the letter supporting their arguments:

• “PV is already cutting the price of electricity on German and Italian grids … the difference between the peak price of electricity and the base-load price on the German grid has fallen significantly, while PV installations in Germany have risen exponentially.”

• “In the early afternoon of 2 May 2012 the price of electricity on the southern Italian grid dropped to zero. Indeed, expressed as price per kilowatt-hour, a measure which favours conventional electricity generation, PV electricity in southern Italy is already below grid parity.”

• “We also agree that 'wind and other clean technologies need to be developed in parallel'. However, the Kombikraftwerk project has shown that an all-renewable electricity supply is possible with existing technologies. Throughout 2006, the project matched 1/10,000 of the real-time demand on the German grid to the real-time output of PV and wind generators, which together supplied 78% of the power. Biogas generators provided the back-up capacity (17%). Only a small pumped-water storage capacity (5%) was necessary.”

The scientists show that the peak price of electricity in Germany has fallen as PV solar installation has risen. That trend could be emulated if other nations were to adopt something similar Germany’s ardently pro-solar policies, including a feed-in tariff (FIT) that rewards individuals, small businesses, and communities, for installing solar arrays. Thanks to those policies, earlier this year, hit a benchmark: half the nation was running on solar power.

The point is, modern society has no need for new coal plants. It may take some unorthodox policymaking and a major push for cleantech—as well as pissing off the rich, fossil fueled status quo. But it can be done, technically. We could install a moratorium on new fossil fuel power and meet new demand with clean energy sources. If only we had the foresight, the vision and the political will to do so.