A study by environmental group Greenpeace has shown that electricity produced by onshore wind and solar plants may become more competitive with power generated by upgraded nuclear plants in France by the end of this decade.
The study comes a week before Energy Minister Segolene Royal presents the broad lines of a much-delayed framework energy law that aims to spell out how France will cut the share of atomic energy to 50 per cent from the current 75 per cent by 2025.
The Greenpeace report comes on the heels of a parliamentary committee report that called on France to rethink how it manages its energy production.
Reuters Newsagency reports that committee said the rising cost of France’s nuclear energy was a concern and the government should set up independent expert institutions to help it plan long-term energy investments.
According to the Greenpeace study, the investment needed to upgrade French utility EDF’s 58 nuclear reactors to bring them close to the safety level of a new-generation EPR reactor would raise median production costs to €133 a megawatt-hour (MWh).
That estimate, based on an extension of the lifespan of current reactors by 10 years to 50 years and €4.4 billion worth of work per reactor, would make nuclear energy less competitive than onshore wind power around 2015, the study said.
Reuters reports Greenpeace also sees the cost of solar photovoltaic power falling to less than €134/MWh around 2019 from more than €250/MWh today.
This would make it competative with the renovated French nuclear plants by that time.
State-owned utility EDF has said it expected investment of about €55 billion by 2025, less than €1 billion for each reactor, to upgrade the plants in the light of lessons learnt from the Fukushima disaster in Japan and prepare them for an extension of their lifespan.
However, the state auditor raised that estimate to €62.5 billion last month.
Reuters reports the Greenpeace €4.4 billion price tag per reactor is based on calculations by Wise-Paris and Global Chance, associations close to anti-nuclear groups.
EDF has also said the reactors’ lifespan could be extended by 20 years, arguing that their design was based on similar models built by Westinghouse in the United States, where many were granted 60-year licences.
French regulator ASN is expected to give a first opinion on whether reactors can be granted life extensions in 2015 and decide reactor by reactor in 2018-2019.
