The French are finding out that combining nuclear power with unstable wind and sun is not a good idea and is a risk to the power grid. Spain recently had to learn a similar lesson, and most painfully. [emphasis, links added]
In a recent EDF report on nuclear safety, Rapport de l’Inspecteur Général pour la Sûreté Nucléaire et la Radioprotection, lead author and former admiral Jean Casabianca concluded that further expansion of wind and solar energy in France poses a serious risk to the country’s power grid.
According to the report, the instability of a weather-dependent wind and solar power supply is a technical and financial burden to nuclear power in France.
Page 13 of the report states:
The massive arrival of new renewable electricity sources (RE), both intermittent and a priority on the grid, has multiplied load variations.
They are not without risk to the safety of the power system (including blackouts), nor are they without constraints on the operation of our facilities. In the long term, they call into question our economic model. (…)
Modulation has gone from flexibility to constraint, with nuclear power having to meet demand alone or in conjunction with hydropower, unless we resort to using thermal and carbon-intensive means.
In addition, load following inevitably has an impact on the machine, which is more frequently solicited by deep cycling. The increase in fortuitous events is not obvious, but it’s over time that the effects will be appreciated.
I believe that the priority given to renewable energies, in a unilateral nuclear-Renewable Energies scheme, leads to power variations which it would be all the more opportune to dispense with, as they are never insignificant in terms of safety, particularly reactivity control, and the maintainability, longevity and operating costs of our facilities.”
Many previously claimed that the nuclear industry could be harmoniously paired with wind energy and thus lead to a decarbonized French electricity mix.
But that is proving to be more fantasy than reality.
The recent Spanish blackout was a glaring example of what can happen when ideology clashes with hard science and reality.
Many engineers and specialists had warned of the risks and complications involved with nuclear power plants having to adapt their output to uncontrolled, fluctuating energies like wind and sun.
The AASSDN site here summarizes:
In the global energy war being waged in France by this pro-wind and pro-photovoltaic lobbying that is contrary to France’s energy interests, this discreet report strikes a real blow to France’s intermittent energy policy.
Even if energy and political players haven’t yet fully grasped the significance of this historic technical report, there’s no denying that it will be a landmark and cannot be buried or downplayed by EDF CEO Luc Rémont.”
Hat-tip: Blackout News.
Read more at No Tricks Zone
France has the largest percent of its power provided by nuclear which, like coal plants, is best used for base load and cannot be adjusted minute by minute to maintain the grid. The marginal power needed to balance the grid is best provided by dispatchable sources like natural gas that can be brought up and down quickly as can be done with hydro. Unfortunately wind and solar is not dispatchable since they are either producing electricity or not. You cannot dispatch it if the wind isn’t blowing or it’s night time or raining for solar.
Putting whole Nations dependent upon Wind and Solar is a totally stupid idea locking up our Natural Resources over a total lie