Part of NEI's New Print Ad Campaign – 24/7 Power
Some advertisers have been known to issue cease and desist letters to bloggers who republish their ads for free. Something tells me that NEI will not mind too much if I share one of the print ads that they are going to be running during the next few months. I’ll remember to seek forgiveness later if my guess was wrong.
(Hint: if you want to see the full size version, just click on the image.)
Update: (Posted February 24, 2010 at 8:00 pm)
Based on some of the comments received, I detected some interest in the following information.
There are more print, radio and video ads available on the NEI Videos & Advertising web page. You might also be interested in reading NEI’s February 2, 2010 announcement of a seven-month long advertising campaign.
Well it’s about time…
It’s excellent and to the point, and if I remember, it’s one of the marketing themes we discussed here…which is great.
It gets the message out – that nuclear really is the backbone of the grid. Coal only has a 71% capacity factor? This is interesting. Well, with coal, I suppose that heat units *do* come with an invoice payable Net 10 (your friendly coal train), so it makes sense *not* to produce sometimes…
Um, you’re going to have to take it down. Just kiddin’. Great you liked it. Now we’ll have to figure out a way to paper metro stations with nuclear…did you know DC gets 36% of its electricity from nuclear? (pdf)
This is why when replacing coal with nuclear (coal2nuclear.com) on a MW per MW basis, you increase total capacity by 10 to 30% depending on the age of the coal burner. Another plus for phasing out coal in favor of nuclear.
It even looks “clean”. Question: Where will this ad be placed? Depending on that, the axiom: “Less is More” often applies. From a visual impact perspective, I like the graph as it gives substance to mere numbers. I also like the “take action” step with the online quiz — maybe enlarge that some?
Think of how many times you receive a business card where the phone number, email address or other contact information is in too small a font. Makes the card nearly worthless. Anyone over 40 years old is dealing with declining near visual acuity without “helpers” and that cohort is expanding daily.
A little thoughtful design work sure goes a long way! What a great campaign!
This is semi-off topic, but it’s for Amory Lovins and his argument about private equity being all over investing in traditional renewables and “not touching nuclear with a 10-foot pole”.
I saw earlier today that the Brightsource Energy Ivanpah Project was recently awarded $1.37 Billion in loan guarantees. This project involves building a 400 (maybe 440) MW solar thermal power plant.
http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/images/uploads/press_releases/BSE_Press_Release_DOE_Announcement_2_22_10_FINAL-2.pdf
Using the capacity factors/”operating efficiencies” from this NEI ad, a conservative estimate that the new Vogtle Units will only have a capacity of 1200 MW (because I’m too lazy to look up the actual number right now), and conservatively pinning Ivanpah’s capacity as 440 MW, the $ of loan guarantees/average expected electricity generated for each project is as follows:
Vogtle – $8.3 Billion / (2 x 1200 MW x 0.92) = $3,760/kW
Ivanpah – $1.37 Billion / (1 x 440 MW x 0.21) = $7,410/kW
That’s right around double for Ivanpah.
Glad that they are including the capacity factor in this, but this is not nearly enough. All the time there are announcements of a, say “500 MW solar farm in California”. No it’s not !!! It’s a 100 MW farm, at best. Once the public understands capacity factor more, there will be even more support for nuclear.
Let’s hope this ad is widely disseminated–beyond the Beltway.
I am told that there are ads for nuclear power, but the only one I have ever seen was an enigmatic, stylish animation by Areva that I don’t think anyone would understand unless they already were educated about how nuclear power works. Rocks go into a place and then people are dancing under lights to “Funky Town”. Meanwhile the fossil fuel companies have ads full of wind turbines and attractive youthful people in hardhats who are serving the nation. Why not show nuclear plant workers who talk about how they and their kids live within a few miles of the plant?
Gwyneth – That AREVA ad came out of Paris. ‘Nuff said.
How about a catchy music video starring a few dozen pop stars singing “We save the world… We are the neutrons…”
What, you are saying that I can’t see anymore? Where are my glasses….?