From Power Technology, January 8:
Energy transition minister says the nation may need more than six new reactors if it is to meet its climate change goals.
France may need to build more than 14 new nuclear power plants, more than the six currently planned, if the nation is to meet its energy transition goal of reducing fossil fuel dependence from 60% to 40% by 2035.
Energy Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher stressed that nuclear will play an increasingly vital role in France’s energy mix. Speaking to La Tribune Dimanche just a few weeks before parliament reveals a bill relating to energy sovereignty, Pannier-Runacher said: “We need nuclear power beyond the first six EPRs [European Pressurised Reactors] since the existing (nuclear) park will not be eternal.”
This new energy strategy will be debated in parliament from late January and must be codified into law.
In 2022, French nuclear power output fell to a 30-year low after operational issues forced many reactors offline. This placed additional upward pressure on European energy prices, which were already being driven up reduced gas flows from Russia. However, French President Emmanuel Macron emphasised the importance of nuclear, stating: “What our country needs, and the conditions are there, is the rebirth of France’s nuclear industry.”....
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And at EurActiv, Jamuary 9:
France unveils draft ‘energy sovereignty bill’, with emphasis on nuclear
France’s main energy priorities for 2030 largely promote nuclear power as a way of ditching fossil fuels while failing to mention the EU’s renewable energy targets.
Read the original French article here.
The “draft bill on energy sovereignty”, which could still change before its final presentation in the coming weeks, lays out France’s energy objectives for 2030.
For now, it fails to address the targets set out in the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive, adopted last year, which mandates EU member states to collectively achieve a 42.5% share of renewables in final energy consumption – which means at least 44% in France, according to Brussels’ calculations.
Article 1 of the draft bill even deletes existing targets for renewable electricity from the French Energy Code, with no new provisions to transpose the latest EU text.
Asked about this failure to comply with EU rules, French officials dismissed the notion that Paris was backtracking on its renewable energy commitments.
“Reaching an objective and defining a target are two different things,” said the office of Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher on Monday (8 January).
One official said it was “strictly untrue to say that we have no renewable energy target in this text”.
“The draft bill mentions renewable energies and gives them a crucial role, that of a keystone: Once we have laid all the foundations of the existing sectors [nuclear, etc.], renewables provide the last mile,” the official explained.
Pannier-Runacher’s office also pointed out that renewable targets are included in the French energy-climate strategy, unveiled at the end of September....
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