UK bank HSBC and French bank Societe Generale (SocGen), for example, released research notes predicting that natural gas would be a winner if voters and governments reject nuclear power. Why the world Is Addicted to Dirty Coal But not all countries are like Japan, with natural gas infrastructure-LNG terminals, pipelines gas refineries. To take advantage of the gas glut, they will have to invest. It's not just a matter switching off nuclear and switching on gas Take Germany, for example, which temporarily shut down seven nuclear reactors in response to Fukushima. It has no LNG terminals and limited gas infrastructure and so its utilities filled three quarters of the energy gap with coal, traders told Reuters in early April Coal is cheaper than gas and, when utility company profits are at stake, they may be tempted to use it. Other nuclear countries that rely heavily on coal are the United States, Japan, China and Coal, gas and oil would benefit from a nuclear phaseout because they can quickly and cheaply eplace the baseload power-continuous energy at a constant rate-provided by nuclear energy This scenario won't be good for the planet, adding about 2 billion tons of Co2 to the 9 billion tons emitted by electricity generators in 2009, according to the economist magazine But on the upside it could have the knock-on effect of a much-needed acceleration of carbon pture and storage(CCs)technology to make fossil fuel plants greener A Rush to renewables? There is another vision. Nuclear's loss becomes renewables' gain if governments and investors get really serious about low-carbon energy Solar power company stocks soared immediately after the Fukushima disast Renewables cannot, at the moment, fill the energy gap entirely. Wind and solar plants don't yet provide continuous baseload power because the sun doesnt al ways shine and the winds dont al ways blow. Those hurdles could in time be overcome by massive expansion of all renewables, plugged into new electricity storage systems andsmart electricity grids that can better distribute wind and solar power The 2011 Battle of the Grids' report from environmental campaigners Greenpeace argues that Europe could get nearly 70 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030, and almost 100 percent by2050UK bank HSBC and French bank Societe Generale (SocGen), for example, released research notes predicting that natural gas would be a winner if voters and governments reject nuclear power. Why the World Is Addicted to Dirty Coal But not all countries are like Japan, with natural gas infrastructure—LNG terminals, pipelines, and gas refineries. To take advantage of the gas glut, they will have to invest. It’s not just a matter of switching off nuclear and switching on gas. Take Germany, for example, which temporarily shut down seven nuclear reactors in response to Fukushima. It has no LNG terminals and limited gas infrastructure and so its utilities filled three quarters of the energy gap with coal, traders told Reuters in early April. Coal is cheaper than gas and, when utility company profits are at stake, they may be tempted to use it. Other nuclear countries that rely heavily on coal are the United States, Japan, China and India. Coal, gas and oil would benefit from a nuclear phaseout because they can quickly and cheaply replace the ‘baseload’ power—continuous energy at a constant rate—provided by nuclear energy. This scenario won’t be good for the planet, adding about 2 billion tons of CO2 to the 9 billion tons emitted by electricity generators in 2009, according to the Economist magazine. But on the upside it could have the knock-on effect of a much-needed acceleration of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to make fossil fuel plants greener. A Rush to Renewables? There is another vision. Nuclear’s loss becomes renewables’ gain if governments and investors get really serious about low-carbon energy. Solar power company stocks soared immediately after the Fukushima disaster. Renewables cannot, at the moment, fill the energy gap entirely. Wind and solar plants don’t yet provide continuous baseload power because the sun doesn’t always shine and the winds don’t always blow. Those hurdles could in time be overcome by massive expansion of all renewables, plugged into new electricity storage systems and ‘smart’ electricity grids that can better distribute wind and solar power. The 2011 ‘Battle of the Grids’ report from environmental campaigners Greenpeace argues that Europe could get nearly 70 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030, and almost 100 percent by 2050