France's EDF Energy will lead a consortium in charge of building two new reactors at the Hinkley Point C plant in Somerset, southwest England, according to the British government. The consortium will include Chinese investors (China National Nuclear Corp. and China General Nuclear Power Corp.), which London invited to participate in the British nuclear power sector in mid-October. EDF has long been looking for partners to share the cost of the new reactors, which the British government estimates to be around $23 billion. However, EDF has yet to make a final investment decision on the project, and the new reactors will require the authorization of the European Commission. The existing plant at Hinkley currently produces about 1 percent of Britain's total energy, but its share is expected to rise to 7 percent once the expansion is complete in a decade.
The announcement comes at a time when questions are mounting about the future availability of energy in the United Kingdom. According to the Royal Academy of Engineering, the closure of older power plants and the slow progress in building new ones will probably stretch the British electricity system, and supply will come under strain in late 2014 and early 2015. The report also mentions that some of the country's existing coal-fired plants should be closed by 2015 to meet EU pollution directives, further straining availability.
In addition, the United Kingdom has some serious concerns about natural gas, which accounts for about 30 percent of the country's electricity generation, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Production at the natural gas fields in the North Sea is declining, and large-scale liquefied natural gas exporters are focusing on Asian markets, thus making imports more expensive for Britain. Recently London has stepped up its efforts to become a larger player in shale gas, but it will take time for these efforts to bear fruit.
Energy prices are also a controversial issue in Britain. In recent months, most energy companies in Britain announced price hikes of between 6 and 10.8 percent. The government has argued that the new nuclear reactors would reduce the average household's energy bill by $125 in 2030 compared to what it would be without the new projects. The opposition Labour Party has expressed doubts about these claims and has criticized the government for giving EDF state guarantees for the development of the plant.
Nuclear Energy in France and Germany
At the same time as Britain's announcement, France and Germany, the countries with the largest economies in Europe, are seeking to move away from nuclear energy. During his campaign, French President Francois Hollande said his government would reduce France's dependence on nuclear power from 75 percent to 50 percent by 2025 by closing the country's oldest reactors. Public support for nuclear power in France has somewhat declined since the Fukushima incident.
To fulfill Hollande's promise, France will need to significantly expand its renewables, which will be expensive. Paris recently admitted that the energy transition would cost an estimated $27.3 billion a year. The government is expected to pass a new energy law by the end of 2014 that would cap nuclear power capacity and give Paris more authority to shut down reactors. In late September, Paris announced a levy on nuclear energy and a tax on carbon emissions from fossil fuels. According to the government, these taxes should contribute to investments in green energy from 2016 onward. But Eurostat estimates that only 12.8 percent of France's electricity is generated from renewable sources (the EU average is 20.4 percent), which suggests that the transition will probably be slow.
In Germany, nuclear energy has been a contested issue for decades. In 2010, Berlin outlined an ambitious long-term energy strategy designed to lower carbon dioxide emissions, increase energy efficiency and put a heavier emphasis on renewable energy. However, the events in Fukushima in 2011 reignited the debate, and in May of that year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the country would close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022.
Germany's transition to renewables is well underway. According to the European Commission, the percentage of gross domestic consumption of electricity generated from renewable sources doubled between 2005 and 2011, from 10 percent to 20 percent. However, the transition to renewables has become controversial because of the substantial increases in electricity costs for households and fears among businesses about lost competitiveness.
Nuclear Power Elsewhere in Europe
Despite France's and Germany's efforts to move away from nuclear energy, several European countries are trying to expand their nuclear energy sectors over the coming decades, though the process will be slow and expensive. Poland plans to build two nuclear power plants, each with a capacity of 3,000 megawatts, to reduce its dependence on coal. Warsaw hopes the first unit will be operational around 2025. However, the plans could see delays since a site for the plant still needs to be picked — it should be done by 2016 — and permits and construction companies still have to be approved.
Finland is another country that continues to pursue nuclear power. Finland started work on a nuclear plant in 2005, but the project has been repeatedly delayed. Another plant is supposed to be completed by 2024, but it is still unclear who will construct it.
Other European countries are struggling to define their long-term energy policies because the current economic crisis has them strapped for cash. For example, the Czech Republic has delayed a decision on whether to expand its nuclear sector with a new plant at Temelin until early 2015. In Lithuania, plans to build a nuclear power plant to reduce energy dependence on Russia have been delayed because of unpredictable political support at home and because the three Baltic states, all of which would profit from the electricity supply, have struggled to agree on the ownership of the project.
Europe will remain divided on the future of energy, as countries such as the United Kingdom and Poland focus on shale gas development, expand nuclear power plants or continue to rely on coal, while others attempt to transition to renewables. Additionally, across the Continent many power plants are aging and have been in service for half a century. This will fuel further debates regarding the commissioning of new plants. The high levels of unemployment and low rates of economic growth in the European Union suggest the costly transition to green energy will likely remain slow and controversial in the coming years.
