Emmanuel Macron finally determined the prospects for the development of energy in France. Speaking in Belfort, an industrial center in the east of the country, he made it clear that the main focus for the period up to 2050 will be on nuclear power plants. According to him, this "will allow to regain control over the energy destiny of France."
Macron made a strategic decision back in November last year, when, addressing the nation from the Elysee Palace, he announced that "in order to ensure the country's energy security" the construction of nuclear reactors would be resumed. And now he outlined a specific program, naming the deadlines for implementation.
In addition to the fact that the current 56 nuclear reactors will continue their service, new ones will appear. We are talking about six reactors of the new generation EPR-2. Their construction will begin in 2028, and commissioning is scheduled for 2035. At least 50.5 billion euros will be invested in the project. Moreover, eight more such units are provided, they will appear later.
In addition, Macron announced his intention to invest 1 billion euros in the development of small modular SMR reactors with a capacity of 50 to 500 MW. Their advantage is the relative ease of manufacture, assembly on a conveyor with further delivery to the place of operation.
Macron also talked about renewable energy sources (RES), whose place in the energy balance of France is still small. Moreover, the focus will be on solar energy. Such stations, according to the president, "fit better into the landscape" compared to wind turbines.
The volume of energy received from the sun is planned to be increased 10 times, and from the wind - twice, for which 50 offshore wind parks will be created. Now nuclear power plants generate more than 70% of all electricity consumed in the country (it is planned that it will be 80%). In total, 56 reactors operate in the country. The share of the sun accounts for up to 2%, wind - 8%, gas and coal - up to 9% of all generation. At the same time, thanks to the large capacities of nuclear power plants, France generates more electricity than it consumes, exporting it to Germany and Italy.
Only four countries can build nuclear power plants on their own - Russia, the USA, China and France
Of course, there are also opponents of nuclear power plants in the country. Basically it is "green". Therefore, one of their leaders, Yannick Jadot, who ran for the upcoming presidential election, reacting to Macron's speech, wrote on Twitter: "Macron condemns France to energy and industrial obsolescence until the end of this century." True, few people paid attention to the criticism of the politician, whose chances in the presidential race are not great.
France announced plans for nuclear energy without waiting for the decision of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, which is now considering the possibility of recognizing nuclear power plants as clean generation. For the main enemy of nuclear energy - Germany, such a decision by Paris is hardly a surprise, the disagreements on this issue among the countries have persisted since 2012. Paris, which Macron once again confirmed, has staked on the "peaceful atom", in Germany, where the "greens" now control not only the relevant ministries - economy, ecology, energy, but also the Foreign Ministry - they are eradicating nuclear power plants. At the end of last year, half of the remaining six stations were closed, and by the end of 2022, the same fate awaits the last three.
In addition to France, nuclear energy has other supporters in the EU - the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland and Slovenia. Of the states that are not members of the union, nuclear power plants continue to be built in the UK.
France is one of four countries that are able to independently build nuclear power plants along with Russia, the United States and China, said Artem Tuzov, executive director of the capital market department at Univer Capital. Other countries, of course, can also make a declarative decision to build a nuclear power plant, but they will not be able to do it themselves.
It is significant that it was Russia, the United States and China that never even started talking about taking nuclear generation out of the energy balance. In France, there were such conversations in 2015-2017, during Macron's presidential election campaign. Then he promised to reduce the share of nuclear generation in the country to 50%. But after the energy crisis of 2021, he changed his approach to nuclear power plants.
The development of nuclear power plants has always been more of a political issue due to the opposing positions on the issue between Germany and France. The decision of Paris will not affect the pan-European course towards the development of renewable energy sources, Vladimir Gorchakov, head of the ACRA sustainable development risk assessment group, believes.
The policy of abandoning carbon generation is calculated until 2050 and will be implemented, Tuzov agrees. But he notes that the energy crisis has shown the weakness of renewable energy in the wind and solar. In fact, the EU is following the path of the "green square" concept proposed by Rosatom. The concept implies the generation of energy from renewable energy sources from four sources - atom, hydropower, wind and sun. But due to the specifics of the EU territory, it is difficult to rely on hydropower, so they want to replace it with gas.
bbabo.Net