Compare/contrast Renewable energies vs Nuclear energy - Assignment Example

Uranium is found in nearly all types of rock and soil bottoms and thus it is readily available for enrichment. The fuel cost of a nuclear reactor is estimated to be approximately $0.02/kWh (Bodnasky). The fuels used in renewable sources of energy have almost no cost at all; sunlight, wind and running water are available free of cost. As far as availability is concerned, sunlight is readily available in almost all the regions of the world however the desired wind speeds for wind energy are not available everywhere.

Recently vertical axis turbines have been developed which operate at lesser speeds (Mathew). Moreover the flow required for hydroelectric power units is present at particular sites. As far as fuels are concerned, renewable sources of energy has this advantage over nuclear energy that fuels are not to be transported to the power plants. Nuclear energy is not a very scalable source of energy and there is a lot of capital involved in the construction of a nuclear reactor. Therefore the amount of power generated from nuclear sources cannot be readily increased or decreased as per the requirements.

The scalability of nuclear energy discusses expanding it to a wider section of the energy market, however in the current economic scenario households and industries want to be more independent with regards to fulfilling their energy needs but a single household or even a large industry cannot own a nuclear reactor of its own. Renewable sources of energy, particularly wind and solar energy provide a scalable option to the consumers. A single household can install a solar panel or a farm owner can have a wind turbine of his own.

With the recent developments in micro-hydro turbines, hydroelectric sources have also become very scalable and energy generation can be altered as per the requirements (Miller and Spoolman). Almost all the