France: New Nuclear Power Plants Still in Planning - New Offshore Wind Farms Already in Operation
Muenster, Germany - France is sticking to nuclear power despite the massive failure of nuclear power plants in 2022. However, while the construction of the new nuclear power plants is still in the planning phase, France is rather quietly connecting more new offshore wind farms to the power grid.
France: EDF has been building the Flamanville nuclear power plant for 16 years
However, the nuclear power plant may not be in operation for long, as the Nuclear Safety Authority (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, ASN) requires that the reactor vessel lid be replaced right away by the end of 2024. In response, EDF subsidiary Framatome had asked ASN to postpone the replacement so that it would coincide with the first refueling. It is currently impossible to predict when the nuclear power plant will be able to generate electricity continuously.
French government accelerates nuclear power plant planning - EDF to build three EPR reactor pairs in order
EDF, as part of the implementation and construction of six new nuclear power plants, proposed on June 29, 2023, to build three pairs of EPR2 reactors - not at the same time, however, but one after the other - at the sites of Penly, Gravelines (Hauts de France) and in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region at Bugey or Tricastin.
The favorite is a first EPR2 reactor pair at the Penly site in Normandy. On June 29, 2023, the EDF Board of Directors approved the application documents for licensing. Actually, a three-year review phase (until 2026) by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) will then follow first, but they do not want to wait that long. EDF is to be enabled to start preparations for the construction of the first two reactors from June 2024.
Despite the planning acceleration, however, the new pair of reactors at the Penly nuclear power plant site will not be completed before 2035. In addition to the Flamanville nuclear power plant (1,650 MW), which is expected to be commissioned in 2024, it is already apparent that by 2035, together with the two new ERP2 NPPs at Penly, a total of only three new nuclear power plants with a total capacity of around 5 GW (5,000 MW) will be commissioned. How many old nuclear power plants from the current nuclear fleet (56 nuclear power plants) will be decommissioned in the meantime remains to be seen.
France puts first offshore wind farms into operation - significantly faster construction pace
France is also implementing its offshore plans in parallel with nuclear power plant construction. EDF has already fully commissioned the first French offshore wind farm by the end of 2022. The Saint-Nazaire wind farm, with 80 Haliade GE turbines (6 MW each) and a total capacity of 480 MW, is located 12 to 20 km off the coast of the Guérande peninsula.
In the current year 2023, two more offshore wind farms, Fécamp (Normandy) and Saint Brieuc (Brittany), will come on stream, each with around 500 MW. In the offshore wind farm Saint Brieuc 62 turbines (Siemens Gamesa) with 8 MW each will be installed (496 MW). On July 09, 20923, the first offshore wind power was fed into the French grid.
Also in the offshore wind farm Fécamp (Normandy), the first offshore turbine is connected to the grid and has been producing green electricity since the weekend (15/16 July 2023). Here, 71 offshore turbines with 7 MW each from Siemens Gamesa are used.
By the end of 2023, France will have an offshore wind power capacity of almost 1,500 MW. This is roughly equivalent to the output of a nuclear power plant unit at the Penly site. However, while the new offshore wind farms will already be producing electricity in 2023, the first nuclear power plant in Penly will not start generating electricity until 2035 at the earliest.
Source: IWR Online, 20 Jul 2023
