President's Page

摘要

My wife and I recently spent several enjoyable weeks in March on holiday in New Zealand. New Zealand is about as 'non-nuclear' a country as you're likely to find, with an apparent abundance of natural low carbon energy sources. The reality is rather different. Geothermal generation from the volcanic area around Rotorua is proving rather more finite than expected, and additional hydro schemes, although feasible, threaten the beautiful scenery which attracts tourism, a major part of the New Zealand economy. As elsewhere, New Zealand is currently developing an increasing contribution from wind-power, but not with any great confidence that it's the whole answer. This just illustrates that the sort of challenges we're facing can be found wherever you look.