As the energy shortage approaches, PLR, UDC and now the Club Energie Suisse, a pro-nuclear lobby, are calling for the relaunch of the construction of power plants of this type. With the naivety of a child believing in a providential solution to all their problems, they see it as the only way out of our problems, following having slashed all efforts in terms of energy transition since the acceptance of the 2050 energy strategy. discourse – populist as possible – frontally attacks the “ecological dictatorship” and the “idealists”.
When we deconstruct their argument a little, we realize that no relevant argument today pleads in favor of the construction of new reactors. Nuclear energy as it exists is slow to deploy, inflexible, more expensive than decarbonized alternatives, and above all – relevant when talking regarding scarcity – unreliable and not very resilient.
On cost, first of all, the latest analyses, including the 2021 average unit cost of energy study from Lazard, estimate that the cost of a new nuclear plant, without even taking into account the cost of dismantling the plant in the long term or that of any guarantees to be provided, amounts, in the best case, to 116 $/MWh compared to approximately 32 $/MWh for wind power or 27 $/MWh for solar. So we go from simple to more than triple.
Some will argue that it may be more expensive, but it is easier to manage, more reliable, and does not cause intermittency problems. This is an affirmation that seems interesting, a priori, but which is much more fantasy than reality. Nuclear power plants are shut down between 7 and 12% of the time on average, and this when everything is going well. France, an all-nuclear country, reports much more discouraging figures. In 2019, French nuclear power plants were shut down for an average of 96.2 days for planned or forced interventions. In 2020, 115.5 days. Today, 28 French nuclear power plants out of 56 are shut down. The country went from net exporter of electricity to importer in the space of a few years. More generally, we observe that the SAIDI which measures, through a very simple mathematical formula, the average duration of service interruption for each consumer in minutes, is not lower in countries heavily dependent on nuclear power. On the contrary, the French SAIDI is much higher than other European countries.
“Our green-liberal initiative for the deployment of solar energy in Geneva, aimed in particular at guaranteeing better financing conditions and putting an end to administrative barriers, constitutes a logical and necessary step in this direction”
Let’s be clear, the shortage we are going through today is directly linked to the unreliability of nuclear power, which Switzerland depends on in winter via France. No wonder that EDF, whose margins and balance sheet are far from gratifying, must be nationalized and that France is desperately trying to save its national industry, as inefficient as it is costly, with pro-nuclear propaganda operations. The years to come will be dark for nuclear power. Climate change further threatens the stability of this network, which is highly dependent on water temperature for cooling the reactors. Since the 1990s, interruptions to nuclear power plants have increased sevenfold. Global warming is pushing people to choose between protecting waterways and increasing energy production. This year’s heat wave has further underlined the need to reduce production, both in Switzerland and in France.
Finally, in terms of reliability, it should be remembered that making your network dependent on nuclear means creating instability caused by the centralization of energy sources. The figures show that the more a network is dependent on renewable energies, the more reliable it becomes. The
decentralization combined with the alternation of production peaks between solar, wind and hydroelectric, the increase in storage capacity of dams as well as the development of new technologies create a beneficial diversification, less costly and easier to manage .
We have known the solutions for a long time. We must invest massively in the deployment of wind and solar energy as a priority, whose potential in Switzerland is largely under-exploited and which are able to ensure, together with hydroelectricity, and the rapid conclusion of an agreement on electricity with the EU, our supply. Our green-liberal initiative for the deployment of solar power in Geneva, aimed in particular at guaranteeing better financing conditions and putting an end to administrative barriers, is a logical and necessary step in this direction.
As a reminder, the OFEN estimates that, just by equipping the housing stock, the solar potential of our country is greater than all of our national production last year. As for nuclear power, it is part of the solution and will remain as a transition energy. Funding for research in the field, like research for new storage technologies, must also be maintained, but the idea of launching the construction of new reactors is nonsense.
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– Nuclear will not save us
Marc Wuarin Green Liberal Candidate for the Council of State
Posted today at 5:40 p.m.