Re: Swedish energy authority says ok to scrap 2nd nuke

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

Franz and others,

>Please keep in mind, that electricity is not electricity. During 
> >wintertime usually baseload from hydroelectric power is extremely low, 
> >because of the frozen lakes and rivers and therefore it will not be 
> >available to the same extent as during summer time - when everything is 
> >lit well by the midnight sun,...

Yes: The load during different hours of the day and over the year usually 
shows large variations. I don't know to which extent hydroelectricity is 
produced wintertime in Norway but I am pretty certain that much of the water 
is frozen (I was in Norway only 5-6 days ago and even threw a snowball on 
the Hardangervidda BTW). Well, if the hypothesis (trading electricity 
between Scandinavian countries) I bear responsibility for is only 
half-correct/wrong, the hydropower would have to be sold later during the 
year. Otherwise it is all wrong. Maybe the business  worked by 
options/futures instead. If most water is frozen Norway in March they could 
buy some of our nuclear electricity instead - as long as we are allowed to 
run the rest of the 11 NPPs.

>I remember from my early years, that there was once a big discussion
>about the exploitation of the Vindel-Aelv, which I knew well,...
>I believe that "Vindelälven" still is untouched.
My brother wrote an option-value analysis study (at the Stockholm School of 
Economics) based on that river - application of theory to a practical 
example. Without a bunch of math it can be described in words like: "what 
would someone in Stockholm or India be willing to pay to have the 
possibility to go to the untouched river ("Vindelälven") even if they may 
never go there?" By asking this kind of question, one can assign a monetary 
value to natural assets - values that usually never are taken into account 
in standard decision making.

>Additionally I wonder from what hydroelectric power plants Sweden could 
>produce additional energy - it seamed to me that everything of interest
>had been used for electricity generation.
The numbers I have seen recently indicate that we probably have about 3-4 
more TWh hydropower per year now as compared to 15-20 years ago. I just 
wondered where they may have come from. I didn't follow these number for a 
long time.

My reflections and ideas only,

Bjorn Cedervall   bcradsafers@hotmail.com

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