Nuclear and renewable: “Let’s get out of the sterile opposition! »» | EUROtoday

On Jun 13, 2025

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LA France was to decide on its power coverage final 12 months. Political vagaries didn’t need it. The authorities ended up concluding, however hesitations have appeared and we now have two texts, the third multi -year power program (PPE3) that the federal government needed to undertake by decree, and a programming invoice that the Senate submitted to the deputies after having voted, referred to as PPL Grémillet, of the title of his godfather. If it’s crucial to place every thing again into work, we threat ready for the Greek calendars, or France continues to be ruled by the earlier programming which prescribes fourteen much less nuclear reactors when the brand new initiatives would love fourteen extra.

The PPE3 was written while you noticed the long run with a fanfare and added to envy all of the means of manufacturing decarbon power, beginning with electrical energy whose share is meant to double. Meanwhile, the economic system has slowed down, electrical energy consumption stagnates. But intermittent sources have progressed and began to destabilize electrical networks, forcing the every day electrical energy market to variations in extreme costs. Why hassle to put in and subsidize renewables since nuclear already supplies decarbonized electrical energy? It is the sensation of the previous French electrical guard to which the Senate echoes.

And it’s true that the emergence of enormous quantities of electrical energy when the solar shines requires decreasing nuclear manufacturing to the detriment of its profitability. Sometimes renewable electrical energy arrives when you do not want it! It then loses its worth, it turns into a waste that it’s a must to do away with by paying the one who needs to purchase it. It is the constraint of electrical energy: it’s tough to retailer. At any time, manufacturing have to be equal to consumption, so go to say it to the climate on which the renewables rely.

It due to this fact requires controllable means. The French are very blissful to make the most of the nuclear energy crops constructed by their elders. They don’t depend upon the wind or the solar. The good thought is to run them as protected so long as potential, 40, 60, 80 years. And to construct their replacements that the following generations will want. Once France has its nuclear and hydraulic base, it would all the time be time to consider the complement …

Well, it isn’t that straightforward. Because electrical energy consumption known as upon to extend.

Need renewable reinforcements

The first goal of the power coverage is to cut back using fossil fuels which alter the local weather and price to import. Biomass, inexperienced gasoline or geothermal power will assist produce warmth, however the primary means will likely be electrification, as a result of electrical energy is decarbonated and produced in France. Vehicles turn out to be electrical, electrical energy connoisseur knowledge facilities are growing, warmth pumps will regularly exchange boilers, trade will want hydrogen. It will likely be crucial to provide extra.

In addition, the efficiency of present nuclear reactors may lower over time, whereas the arrival of future energy crops is barely introduced for 2038. If nuclear is missing indirectly, welding will likely be tough. In quick, we have to reinforce renewables. At the European stage, insufficiency is clearer as a result of nuclear represents solely 24 % of electrical energy consumption. Renewables are due to this fact the primary soldiers of the decarbonation of electrical energy in Europe, with pure gasoline in assist, to take over when the climate isn’t there. In France, quite the opposite, nuclear energy crops and hydraulics, already decarbonized, will guarantee the majority of electrical energy consumption, renewables enjoying an additional function that may be adjusted by considering the self -consumption that develops.

Renewables increase new issues. The value of community connections pushes to keep away from the multiplication of small installations. The variability of manufacturing results in growing the flexibleness of {the electrical} system, offering rescue productions, erasure, batteries and different methods to retailer electrical energy. The coexistence of the pilotable and variable means have to be optimized, as a result of intermittent renewable energies want a pilotable relay to which they have to not compete. In case of overproduction, renewables must fade earlier than nuclear. There is not any opposition between nuclear power and electrical renewables as quickly as their complementarity is effectively organized.

There stays the forgotten political query, the connection to Europe of power coverage. Is France a free nation of its power decisions or the hyperlink in a European coverage whose orientations escape it? The Commission doesn’t make a good time wanting a big European community powered by the North Wind and the Sun of the Midi. Like a number of instances prior to now, Europe is confronted with the dilemma of the give up or double. The bicycle vacillates if it doesn’t advance. The Draghi report recommends a leap to extra Europe to keep away from stalling the continent vis-à-vis the United States and China. The skeptics of Europe, quite the opposite, need France to cowl extra sovereignty.

The Lisbon Treaty establishes that Member States are chargeable for the selection of their power sources. But the Commission has voted a directive imposing 42.5 % and if potential 45 % of renewables in 2030. What is the precedence of Europe, the local weather or renewables? So let the Member States select their means. Thanks to nuclear energy, electrical energy is decarbonized in France. The stability of its community is helpful within the occasion of failure of neighboring programs topic to variable energies. However, France can’t be overseas to the outstanding growth of renewable energies on the earth. This is its mission, marry nuclear and renewables, and reveal that its decisions are the correct ones to take pleasure in a aggressive, decarbon sovereign power.

To uncover

The kangaroo of the day

Answer

Good luck to our deputies.

* Brice Lalonde, former Minister of the Environment, is president of the Think Tank stability of energies.

https://www.lepoint.fr/debats/nucleaire-et-renouvelables-sortons-de-l-opposition-sterile-13-06-2025-2591909_2.php