Antinuclear

Abbott government blind to the real developments in energy systems

It’s time for Abbott to dump secret nuclear ambitions  Echo Net Daily, By Giles Parkinson, RenewEconomy, 29 July 14 “……….Adam Creighton, the Australian’s economics writer, typified the confusion of conservatives about energy choices in his column last month, entitled ‘The wrong call on energy costs’…………

The second is the idea that nuclear is cheap. France is often held out as the prime example of this, but this façade is rapidly fading on the realisation that France will have to spend more in coming years on maintenance than it did on building the plants in the first place. (See graph at the end of story).

France’s Cour des Comptes said in a recent report that the current cost of production for France’s nuclear fleet was EUR 59.8/MWh ($A85/MWh), and will rise as the state-owned EdF invests another EUR 62.5 billion between 2011 and 2025, half of it just on safety measures. That cost will soar to EUR90 billion by 2033.

A Greenpeace report suggested that the safety upgrades needed for France’s 58 nuclear reactors would raise median production costs to 133 euros ($US180) per megawatt-hour (MWh) by 2020.

That estimate, based on an extension of the lifespan of current reactors by 10 years to 50 years and 4.4 billion euros worth of work per reactor, would make nuclear energy less competitive than onshore wind power around 2015, and less competitive than solar by 2020.

A parliamentary committee said the rising cost of France’s nuclear energy is of such a concern and the government should set up independent expert institutions to help it plan long-term energy investments.

The Hollande government has already made a decision, to place a cap on nuclear capacity and ramp up the introduction of renewables, because they see it as the cheaper option.

In the UK, the $24 billion Hinkley C facility is to be built by EdF and some Chinese contractors after getting a guaranteed price of £92.50/MWh 0 nearly double the current average cost of generation in the UK, and a whole heap of subsidies.

As Deutsche Bank pointed out after that contract announcement, EdF effectively handballed the risk of new nuclear to the consumer and the UK government, and Deutsche wondered how the French government could possibly finance any investment in new reactors.

Given that EdF is already cash-flow negative and has such a huge debt, few people have any clue how that could possibly be done.

In Australia, the Abbott government and the conservatives are completely blind to this. Hence their determination stop renewables as if it were part of some subversive green-left agenda. But the longer they delay renewables, the more they risk Australia’s economic indicators following in the path of Silex http://www.echo.net.au/2014/07/time-abbott-dump-secret-nuclear-ambitions/#comment-1776807

July 30, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News