Francois De Beaupuy reports that France’s nuclear giant has a plan to survive the public wave of renewable energy that’s sweeping aside old-fashioned utilities across Europe [Fact Check ! Popular support may have no basis in economic reality, but politicians will try anything to keep voters). First it needs to disprove the conventional wisdom about how reactors work. Electricite de France SA says its fleet of nuclear reactors aren’t just able to provide a steady stream of power, they’re flexible enough to complement a large fluctuating supply of renewable energy [but the cost of inserting and making available renewable-produced electricity would be high]. Combined with a 25 billion-euro ($31 billion) solar plan and potential investments in huge batteries, the utility says it can ride out the energy upheaval, while also helping the French government fulfill its goal of cutting reliance on nuclear power [ which makes no sense whatsoever by addressing an ignorant public whim].
“Our nuclear is flexible, it’s variable,” said EDF Chief Executive Officer Jean-Bernard Levy. “Renewable energies are totally complementary" [with nuclear providing grid back-up, but making the cost for renewable energy high, just because the public likes the ideas of windmills and solar-farms without including the O&M costs down the road that will increase the price of electricity]. That combination is the most cost effective way of generating low-carbon electricity in France, EDF says, but that doesn’t mean it comes cheap. Huge investments are needed to prolong the life of atomic plants plus billions more for renewables [FACT CHECK ! It is more one of the high costs to integrate renewables' power into an existing stable nuclear grid that costs and for O&M of renewable operations that actually run-up the cost of integration], but right now the utility is struggling to generate enough cash. It needs to spend 48 billion euros in the 12 years through 2025 to renovate reactors and expects to fund about half of the 30 gigawatts of solar developments the company plans on French soil by 2035 (FACT CHECK NEEDED HERE].
Nuclear dominates French power, but there are doubts it's flexible enough for the future [ Who doubts ?.....the supporters of windmills and solar farms no doubt]... EDF, a 72-year-old state-run behemoth that operates the world’s largest fleet of reactors, isn’t perceived as being a natural fit for the future[ Who says ?.....the supporters of windmills and solar farms no doubt].. The growing market share and falling price of fluctuating electricity sources like wind and solar is disrupting established power generators across Europe, forcing them to mothball or close plants that aren’t used enough to be profitable, or can’t quickly accommodate swings in supply and demand [ This should be a clue to regulators who try to force windmills and solar farms into an existing stable nuclear power grid]. Most nuclear plants were designed to provide steady output around the clock, not submit to the whims of the weather.
“If you’re not flexible, you’re going to struggle,” said Jonas Rooze, the head of European power transition at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “Nuclear is probably incompatible with large volumes of solar and wind."[ but the latter are inherently flawed by their very fluctuating supplies of energy, even with economic storage (which is not yet available)]. EDF disagrees, saying its reactors can vary output by as much as 80 percent twice a day. All 58 of them are equipped with control rods, which can be inserted into the core and slow the rate of fission that generates energy. The mechanism is usually used for emergency shutdowns by automatically falling in between nuclear fuel assemblies, but EDF the equipment can be easily maneuvered to accelerate or slow the rate of power generation. It says it can also fine-tune output by changing the concentration of a chemical in the reactor. The utility is already capable of offsetting a change in power flows as large as 21 gigawatts in less than 30 minutes -- equivalent to more than 10,000 turbines falling still due to lack of wind -- said Dominique Miniere, the company’s head of nuclear and thermal power generation.[but then again, by turning down nuclear input to the grid, both the loss of nuclear efficiency and the cost to regulate in the renewable energy combine to increase cost, just to please a segment of the French public who think windmills and solar use "free" energy, which in fact involves economics before whims.].
That characterizes France’s total wind and solar capacity today, although President Emmanuel Macron wants to at least double that by 2022. It’s unclear whether EDF’s proposals would increase maintenance costs or erode profitability, said Nicolas Goldberg, an energy expert at Paris-based Colombus Consulting. “EDF still has things to prove regarding the flexibility of nuclear,” Goldberg said. “It remains to be seen whether there’s no problem when it’s done every day, when the wind starts blowing and renewable penetration reaches 40 percent.”[ but at what cost for this "free" energy?]
Abundant wind and solar energy in Germany has for several years forced power generators to adjust their nuclear output, hurting profitability. RWE AG, the largest electricity producer, expects profit from the unit that operates lignite-burning plants and reactors to fall significantly for 2017, following similar declines the previous two years.[FACT CHECK HERE ! ...Notice the huge increase in electricity costs in Germany now as they allow herd mentality after the Japan earthquake damage to 2 reactors to turn away from nuclear for so-called "free energy", but instead of relying on cheap Russian natural gas and incredible dirty "brown" coal (not even of lignite grade), Germany tried to to turn to windmills and solar farms, the wind does not blow enough or the sun does not shine enough to come even close driving renewable energy market economics.].
EDF says it can adapt with the increase in renewable energy until 2030 without much impact on the cost of its nuclear power production because of its 30 years of experience with flexible reactors, said Miniere. But before the company can prove its case that renewables and nuclear are the perfect couple, there are other challenges to overcome. European electricity prices [not including France or Germany] are currently too low to cover the investments required to renovate EDF’s reactor fleet and build new facilities to replace the oldest plants [FACT CHECK: No need to rebuild for another decade or two]. The utility will need some regulatory support from the government to foot the bill, said CEO Levy. In the U.K., the government guaranteed power prices for 35 years to encourage the company to build a new 19.6 billion-pound ($27.7 billion) nuclear plant. [There will be SMRs to consider in the near future and that will change the economics considerably ...for the better]
However, for Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot, expanding renewable energy is the priority, not building new reactors [so that he can please his public sector and keep his job]. “I’ve always said that we need to find the way to regulated prices the British way,” said Levy. “There won’t be investments without it.” [The British will be building SMRs soon].
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