nuclear-news

France moving towards renewable energy, despite AREVA and other nuclear lobbies

Critics have accused France’s nuclear lobby – made up of the industry’s powerful unions and its state-controlled companies EDF and Areva – of impeding renewable investment.

France aims to rebalance its energy mix, FT.com By Peggy Hollinger, 10 July 11, France will on Monday begin a big push on renewable energy that could signal a weakening in the traditional hold of nuclear power over a country that has long led the field in atomic energy.

“Our objective is to rebalance the energy mix in favour of renewables,” said Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, ecology minister, in an interview with the Financial Times as she prepared to launch a €10bn ($14.2bn) tender for five new offshore windpower farms. “France remains attached to nuclear power, but we are also weighing up the markets of the future and their new technologies.”….. “we are investing in [nuclear] safety, not in growth objectives as we are doing in renewables,” Ms Kosciusko-Morizet said.

The tender for 3GW of capacity comes after months of delay and amid concerns that France will not meet its target to have 23 per cent of energy consumed in 2020 provided by renewable sources, against 12.4 per cent today.

Critics have accused France’s nuclear lobby – made up of the industry’s powerful unions and its state-controlled companies EDF and Areva – of impeding renewable investment….

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e490bc14-ab04-11e0-b4d8-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1Rj3Z63K9

July 10, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, renewable