As we face a scarcity of fossile resources and the menace of climatic changes, nuclear energy is considered indispensable in many countries of the world. But since the desaster of Fukushima at the latest, discussions are going on questioning if its benefits may be balanced with the risks of radiation for human beings and nature from damaged nuclear plants.
Blue Economy is taking Germany as an example for a calculation how renewable energies can guarantee electric power supply in quantities which could substitute all national nuclear plants. The innovations have been already presented in detail in former business cases.
Vertical turbines (Case 11) can be installed inside high voltage pylons and optimize the use of wind energy while using existing infrastructure to feed the electricity thus generated into the grid. Solar collectors (Case 53) which do not only use the light, but also the heat from the sun, can be installed on defunct parts of landfills thus making profit on unused portions of land. Last but not least, the water treatment plants could be equipped with biogas generators (Case 51) and use sludge as well as municipal solid waste to produce baseload electricity.
Only a fraction of the available resources of pylons, landfills and waste is needed to produce more electricity than all German nuclear plants together at a price which is many times lower than nuclear energy. This is an example how innovations of the Blue Economy can be combined in a smart way in order to provide a sustainable energy generation for a whole industrialized nation.
