Abstract
The EDF Group, the country’s main energy company, has said France will spend 45 billion euros over the next 15 years to finance an expansion of nuclear power and renewables. The announcement comes as a result of President Emmanuel Macron’s commitment to reducing reliance on fossil fuels and accelerating the use of green technologies in response to climate change.
France announces for new investment
For the company, the new investments mark a shift away from a strategy of pushing sales of electricity to consumers, to the long-term goal of creating new sources of energy [to add to what we already have]. Last year’s nuclear expansion plan was more focused on generating electricity at existing facilities rather than adding entirely new ones.
The French government will take a 30% stake in EDF, which it co-owns with the private sector, with an initial investment of €6.2 billion. The state will pay for the rest with financing from next year’s budget and bonds issued by EDF.
The French government has set a countrywide goal to limit the rise in temperatures to 1.5°C while identifying renewable energy as a source of energy to be used and not necessarily limited, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Citation from the government
“This is one that we have been working on for several months and it is in line with our ambitions,” François de Rugy, the Minister of Ecological Transition, said on Tuesday. “We want to accelerate the use of renewables and limit carbon emissions largely.”
France, which produces 70% of its electricity from nuclear power, is planning a cost-effective way to make all France’s reactors available for over 50 years, according to reports.
France is boosting its efforts to curb carbon emissions by $85bn in order to meet carbon-reduction targets set at Paris Climate talks last year.
While France has been expanding its nuclear power production for decades, it is adding more use of renewable sources as well because they are cheaper than nuclear plants under current rates.
With the €45bn investment, France hopes to boost its production capacity from 63GW of nuclear power to 78GW in 2028.
Summary of the France government’s new footstep
EDF said in a statement: “With this new plan, we’re staying faithful to our vision of a nuclear and renewables mix, which will allow for maintaining a very high level of security and low energy costs for customers.”
Switch from fossil fuels to nuclear is not without its challenges; EDF recently reported a 14.5pc drop in profits in 2017 due to the continued decrease of the cost of power generated by fossil fuels worldwide.
