L R AS Published on Monday 29 November 2021 - n° 384 - Categories:other France
Greenpeace and Rousseau Institute confirm: solar and wind power cheaper than new nuclear power plants
Greenpeace France and the Rousseau Institute wanted to know the respective costs of photovoltaic and wind power compared to nuclear power in order to shed light on the debate launched by the President of the Republic with his choice to resort to nuclear power plants
The cost of electricity from Flamanville is the highest of the different choices. The cost of energy from older reactors is only slightly higher than ground-based or large-roof photovoltaics, but also from onshore wind power.
Despite these very favourable conclusions for RE, the authors point out that "there are still too many uncertainties about the feasibility or real cost of each option. However, these choices will commit us for decades and will ultimately have repercussions on the territories and household budgets. Having more renewables implies an adaptation of the transport system and networks as well as additional investments.
The method used is that of the current economic cost, favoured by the Cour des Comptes to calculate the cost of producing nuclear electricity. It proposes a common scope of analysis for the different technologies studied. The figures used all come from the most recent public sources possible. In the case of nuclear power, EDF's data was used and supplemented by data from other sources, mainly RTE or the Court of Auditors.
The Flamanville EPR was launched in 2007 and should be commissioned in 2012 at a cost of 3.3 billion euros. The delay has reached ten years. The total cost of the project has been multiplied by 6. There is no certainty about the commissioning date, which should be in 2023.
To read the study : https://tecsol.blogs.com/files/greenpeace-co%C3%BBt-des-%C3%A9nergies_novembre-2021.pdf
Tecsol of 25 November 2021
Editor's note: The price hierarchy is the one used by other international institutes (Lazard Comparative Energy Cost Analysis) have provided in the near past. Greenpeace's bias against nuclear did not come into play here
