French nuclear power is aging, it increasingly needs to stop for maintenance work. And since it provides 70% of the national electricity, its setbacks endanger the availability of energy in the period when the demand is highest, that is, in the middle of winter.
Here then is that the government is forced to run for cover. And despite himself he decided to increase the production of electricity with the most polluting of fossil sources: coal. On Sunday, February 6, a decree was published in the Official Journal which temporarily raises the limits on the use of coal until the end of February.
The measure “will be strictly limited to the months of January and February 2022 and will not change the calendar for the closure of coal plants”, which emit large quantities of carbon dioxide, the government specifies. Coal-fired power plants can be turned on for 1,000 hours in the first two months of the year, 300 hours more than required by the previous legislation.
The decision aims to avoid the danger of real energy blackouts. The grid operator, Reseau de Transport d’Electricite, warned in December that France ran the risk of an energy shortage in the event of a cold spell or insufficient wind power.
The problem arises from the fact that at least three of the four largest reactors in the French nuclear park are shut down until the end of winter. The closure of these four reactors, with an installed capacity of 1,450 MW each, deprives France of nearly 10% of its nuclear capacity at a time when it needs electricity most. That is, in the middle of winter.