Energy Production in Hungary

Here is one of our articles on climate change that came out this week. Go check them all out at http://thestudentsmail.com/climate-change/

The situation of energy production and energy consumption is a bit special in Hungary. The distribution of energy consumption by sources is the following: 37% fissile material, 20% hydrocarbon, 14% carbon, 7% green energy and 22% import. It is clear that the rate of energy production from renewable energy sources (e. g. wind, sun, biomass, geothermal) is very low – only 7%. What is the explanation for this?

Hungary doesn’t have enough opportunities to use green energy sources: The wind direction is very variable, and the number of sunny hours per week is not high enough to construct solar power plants. Furthermore, geothermal and biomass energy sources are not productive enough to be profitable. Hungary can’t produce enough energy from renewable energy sources, which is why the country has to choose between fossil energy sources and nuclear power.

Of course, nuclear power (one nuclear power plant is responsible for at least 50% of the national energy production) is the most efficient way to produce energy, but there are big debates about nuclear power on whether it is reliable and secure or not. We interviewed some people about nuclear power to collect some widespread attitudes about nuclear power. One part of the questioned people think that nuclear power plants are really dangerous (there is always a small possibility for disasters but luckily, the present nuclear power plants are safe) and very harmful for the environment (of course, if we compare a green energy source to nuclear power, nuclear energy will be the more harmful, but compared to fossil energy sources, nuclear energy is “greener”). They don’t take into consideration that nuclear power is only replaceable with fossil energy sources in the present situation. Other part of the people (including the government) think that nuclear power is secure and reliable enough to produce energy until green energy sources will be developed enough to replace nuclear power plants. I agree with them, furthermore, I believe that the future of nuclear power still has some great opportunities (e. g. fusion) that could solve the big question of energy.

by Lorinc F.