France Switches Off Climate Change and Fires Up Coal-Fired Power Plants

Climate change? Not at the moment! France is getting ready to restart coal-fired power plants out of fear of power outages. For this, the emission regulations are to be relaxed for the beginning of 2022, as Environment Minister Barbara Pompili has already submitted an application. The application states that the two coal-fired power plants will be on the grid for approximately 1000 hours during the first two months of the year. The coal-fired power plants that are to be restarted are the one in Cordemais near Nantes with 1.2 gigawatts and the plant in Emile Huchet that can supply 0.6 gigawatts.

France’s Energy Mix

France is a country that relies mainly on nuclear power. About 70% of the energy supplied in France comes from nuclear power, which can generate a total of 61 gigawatts of electricity. Between January and February, however, there will be a shortfall of about 20 gigawatts due to maintenance work.

France has actually installed wind power plants that could supply 17 gigawatts of electricity, in reality, the available energy is usually lower, like this week at just 2 gigawatts.

However, it is still unclear whether the coal-fired power plants will really be needed – in the end, this will also depend on the weather. For this year, however, cold winter is predicted in Europe, which is why it is very likely that this will happen.