nuclear-news

In France, wind energy is now cheaper than nuclear

wind in France is paid only €0.08 per kWh ($0.10 per kWh) and clearly competitive with new nuclear.

Wind energy now cheaper than nuclear in France http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/wind-energy-now-cheaper-than-nuclear-in-france-92181 REneweconomy, By Paul Gipe on 5 December 2012
Liberation reports that for the second time in a little more than a year the cost of a new reactor under construction at Flamanville, France has risen dramatically.

Originally scheduled to be completed this year for a cost of €3.3
billion, the cost of the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) doubled in
2011 to €6 billion and completion was delayed until 2016.

Constructors Areva and Electricité de France (EDF) have announced the
cost has again risen, now to €8.5 billion ($10.6 billion) for the
1,650 MW reactor.

Similar cost overruns and completion delays have plagued Areva’s EPR
reactor under construction in Finland. Originally planned for
operation in 2009, the Finnish reactor’s start date has been extended
to 2015, six years behind schedule.

With capital costs now more than €5,000 per kW ($6,400 per kW), EDF’s
announcement doesn’t bode well for reactor proposals in Ontario,
Canada, the US, and in Great Britain….
The French renewables industry was quick to denounce the cost
overruns, saying that renewables are cheaper.

The Syndicat des énergies renouvelables (SER) said the situation
wasn’t surprising, following EDF’s announcement earlier this year of
similar costs for proposed reactors in Great Britain.

This summer both Reuters and Bloomberg were reporting various British
estimates of the tariffs needed to make EDF’s proposed reactors
profitable at these installed costs. Their sources estimated that the
tariffs required varied from a low of €0.12 to as much as €0.19 per
kWh ($0.15 to $0.24 per kWh)……
SER noted that wind in France is paid only €0.08 per kWh ($0.10 per
kWh) and clearly competitive with new nuclear.

What SER didn’t say was that wind generation in France is only paid
€0.08 per kWh for the first ten years of operation. Following the
first ten years of the contract, the tariffs paid depend upon the wind
resource at the site. At the windiest sites, wind generation is paid
as little as €0.03 per kWh ($0.035 per kWh) in years ten through
fifteen, a fraction of the cost of new nuclear in France…..
The full cost of the Flamanville reactor, whatever that might finally
be, will be placed into the rate base and borne by French consumers.
If regulators force EDF to absorb some of the cost overruns, as a
state enterprise, EDF’s loss will be passed onto French taxpayers.

Wind generation and generation from other renewables are treated
differently. Under French feed-in tariffs, renewables are paid a fixed
price for their generation, and only for their generation. If a
renewable project costs more than projected or fails to operate as
planned, the owners bear all the costs. Consumers only pay for the
generation and only the price that is posted by the regulator.

The government of François Hollande campaigned on modestly reducing
French reliance on nuclear from 75% to 50% by 2050. EDF’s announcement
may put pressure on the Hollande government to accelerate the
transition to renewables.

At the current pace of development, France is unlikely to reach its
2020 renewable targets. It currently takes eight years for a wind
project to navigate through the notorious French bureaucracy, in
contrast to the two years needed in Germany. Solar has been plagued by
inconsistent policy during the previous government of Nicolas Sarkozy
that was closely aligned with EDF, Areva, and the nuclear industry.

December 8, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, renewable