Ban Ki-moon should learn from his own country: South Korea invests in coal-fired power in order to prevent blackouts

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has for years now been one of the leading international global warming snake oil salesmen:     

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today issued an urgent warning to government leaders as the annual United Nations climate negotiations kicked into high gear in Doha. “Let us be under no illusion,” he said. “This is a crisis. A threat to us all. Our economies. Our security. And the well-being of our children and those who will come after.”

Opening the high-level segment of the 18th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, Ban said, “The danger signs are all around,” citing the unprecedented melting of icecaps, rising sea levels, and land degradation and drought around the world.

Read the entire article here

Maybe the Secretary-General should make study trip to his own country in order to learn about how to prevent energy blackouts and safeguard economic growth, when facing another cold winter:

South Korea is considering allowing non-state companies to generate coal-fired power for the first time in three decades, as it adds capacity to prevent blackouts that cost the economy $11 billion.

“It will be good to allow a certain number of private coal power generators,” Nam Ho Ki, the chairman of Korea Power Exchange, the government-run company that oversees the country’s power supply and is helping to decide on the new policy, said in an interview in Seoul last week. “We are positively considering that option.”  --

South Korea is vulnerable to blackouts after the government miscalculated demand when planning power plants over the last decade. Some projects were either canceled or delayed because South Korea caps electricity prices to control inflation. Monopoly power distributor Kepco has reported operating losses since 2008. Kepco’s president resigned last month, having failed to win a big enough increase in tariffs.

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy estimated in June 2012 that such “uncontrolled power supply reductions” cut gross domestic product by 11.6 trillion won ($10.7 billion) each time they occur, the equivalent of 1.1 percent of the value of goods and services produced in the country last year.

Another blackout looms this winter because of forecasts for unusually cold temperatures and possible supply interruptions because of the unscheduled shuttering of two nuclear reactors on Nov. 5. South Korea has sounded power demand alerts five times in December after reserve capacity plunged to near or below the 4,000-megawatt safety threshold.

Read the entire article here