Comments on: Why France really had to postpone its nuclear reduction

By: John Daglish

John Daglish — Thu, 31 May 2018 16:40:49 +0000

ADEME GRDF the gas network operator recently published a renewable gas by 2050 strategy.
http://www.ademe.fr/mix-gaz-100-renouvelable-2050

By: John Daglish

John Daglish — Thu, 31 May 2018 16:35:06 +0000

In reply to Joan.

Well the French NGO Negawatt http://www.negawatt.org/scenario/vecteurs has modeled the scenarios. ADEME (French government energy agency) have also modeled high renewable scenarios http://mixenr.ademe.fr/en . All possible but the politics / lobbies are difficult.

By: environmentalresearchweb blog - environmentalresearchweb

environmentalresearchweb blog - environmentalresearchweb — Sat, 12 May 2018 13:48:17 +0000

[…] This may be a little disingenuous: Germany does use coal still, but it exports some of its surplus power to France, some of that surplus being due to the success of renewables, with over 100GW of wind and PV installed so far. The planned 25% nuclear phase out in France could hopefully have worked if renewables had been accelerated faster there too, going well beyond the 45GW of so it had at the end of 2016. They weren’t, so now the nuclear phase out has been delayed, with, it might be argued, inflexible nuclear still in effect blocking progress with renewables, despite claims that nuclear can ramp up and down more: https://energytransition.org/2017/11/why-france-really-had-to-postpone-its-nuclear-reduction/ […]

By: French People Support Energy Transition (More than Nuclear Power) - The Energy Collective

Tue, 06 Feb 2018 21:10:25 +0000

[…] energy transition law, which was passed by the previous government in 2015. However, it is still lacking a concrete plan, as well as specific steps toward a new energy model – a bit like launching a boat into the […]

By: French Folks Assist Power Transition (Greater than Nuclear Energy) – Blog

French Folks Assist Power Transition (Greater than Nuclear Energy) – Blog — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 22:40:29 +0000

[…] which was handed by the earlier authorities in 2015. Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless missing a concrete plan, in addition to particular steps towards a brand new vitality mannequin – a bit like launching a […]

By: North Central Electric LeagueFrench People Support Energy Transition (More than Nuclear Power) - North Central Electric League

Tue, 30 Jan 2018 15:59:27 +0000

[…] transition law, which was passed by the previous government in 2015. However, it is still lacking a concrete plan, as well as specific steps toward a new energy model – a bit like launching a boat into the […]

By: heinbloed

heinbloed — Mon, 25 Dec 2017 13:34:49 +0000

German Christmas ramping:

https://energy-charts.de/power.htm?source=all-sources&week=51&year=2017

Atom power was reduced from 10 GW (0.98) at 18.00 hours on the 23rd of December down to 5.5 GW at 2.00 hours on the 24th of December.

This said we know as well that the reactor Gundremmingen B is at it’s last breath planning for final closure on 31st of December.
Gas, hard coal and lignite do show a similar pattern of ramping over Christmas, the rest of the week to New Years Eve looks splendid concerning wind power input.
It could be well the case that Gundremmingen B closed down one week ahead of schedule, a Christmas gift ….?

The French atom reactors simply switched off, from 12 non-working/semi available reactors on the 23rd of December to 17 on the 24th of December:

https://www.edf.fr/groupe-edf/qui-sommes-nous/activites/optimisation-et-trading/listes-des-indisponibilites-et-des-messages/liste-des-indisponibilites

By: French people support energy transition, survey reveals - FueladdictsFueladdicts

French people support energy transition, survey reveals - FueladdictsFueladdicts — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 13:36:20 +0000

By: Jonathan Maddox

Jonathan Maddox — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 23:22:08 +0000

So, I’m confused. I thought it was widely acknowledged that although it is not necessary to add storage capacity in order to install intermittent renewable generation capacity sufficient, on occasion, to meet 100% of a nation’s instantaneous demand, when the residual demand is met by dispatchable fossil generation, all of which is displaced (substantially reducing emissions) by however much renewable power is available at the time. if one wants to power an entire country entirely on intermittent wind and solar generation, one would need enormous storage capacity — in the form of stored water in hydroelectric impoundments, or batteries, or compressed air, or fossil-identical fuels from power-to-gas facilities stored in underground caverns — simply to store the instantaneous excess when the sun is bright and the wind is up, for later consumption in those still, sunless periods when people huddle indoors in winter.

France, with a large component of its power system unable to ramp significantly (and more to the point, unable to save either costs or emissions by ramping, indeed incurring additional costs by doing so in the limited situations where this is even possible), is merely ahead of the curve. It needs to install storage *now* in order to accommodate additional intermittent generation without consuming more fossil fuels.

It is storage, not intermittent renewables, which will permit France at last to retire some of its “obligate baseload” nuclear generation.

By: Jonathan Maddox

Jonathan Maddox — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 23:13:39 +0000

In reply to Oliver Tickell. Of course France can go on like this: the Franc is a fiat currency, issued by the French government and its wholly-owned central bank, which can issue as much of it as the government chooses, to buy whatever is in the public interest that is available for sale for Francs inside or outside French borders, paying French businesses and workers to do what France does best. Oh, whoops. The Euro is a fiat currency issued by many governments and yet by none, and there are all sorts of rules and regulations which France has signed up to follow. France cannot go on like this within the Eurozone as presently constituted.