French nuclear woes worsen

From Utility Week: “Average wholesale power prices are likely to remain above £100/MWh until 2030 and beyond as the UK’s exports power to Europe to fill the gap left by French nuclear outages, analysts have warned. France’s large but aging nuclear fleet has suffered from a growing number of technical issues in recent years, leading to a flurry of outages for inspections and maintenance and prompting EDF to drastically reduce its generation forecasts.”

Germany also exports power to France. But even before it closed its last three reactors in April, Germany was already seeing a rapid deployment of new solar energy. The country installed 2.7 GW of new solar capacity in the first three months of 2023.  Germany will add at least 9GW and likely 10-GW of new solar this year. In the past four years in Germany, household solar installations have seen a year-on-year growth of 52%.

Meanwhile, France, which rashly favored the “Parc Nucléaire” over renewable energy development, relying on nuclear power for more than 75% of its electricity, has nowhere to turn to now that its aging and degrading nuclear sector is collapsing. This past winter France saw more than 50% of its reactors down, forcing the electricity imports from abroad.