Study suggests integrated renewable system is cheaper for eastern Europe than nuclear power
A renewable, controllable power supply would be less expensive than producing electricity in new nuclear power plants in eastern Europe, a study conducted by Energy Brainpool and commissioned by power supplier Greenpeace Energy finds. Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic are currently planning the construction of 15.6 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity, the press release says.
Official estimates put the cost of nuclear electricity generation in these new plants at 80 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh). The study’s author, Fabian Huneke, says that this figure is too low since the nuclear power plant projects in France and the UK are facing costs upwards of 119 euros per MWh (not including the costs of nuclear waste storage). An integrated system of wind and solar power combined with power-to-gas installations that convert surplus electricity into storable gas (sector coupling) would cost between 100 and 119 euros per MWh, depending on how many countries cooperate, Energy Brainpool calculates.
26 April 2018 marks the 32nd anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which triggered a vocal anti-nuclear movement in Germany, culminating in the nuclear phase-out in the year 2000, and again in 2011.
Read the study in English here.
Find background on Germany’s nuclear exit here.