France to rebalance its energy mix in favour of renewables

[bananas]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e490bc14-ab04-11e0-b4d8-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss

July 10, 2011 5:35 pm
France aims to rebalance its energy mix

By Peggy Hollinger

France will on Monday begin a big push on renewable energy that could signal a weakening in the traditional hold of nuclear power over a country that has long led the field in atomic energy.

“Our objective is to rebalance the energy mix in favour of renewables,” said Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, ecology minister, in an interview with the Financial Times as she prepared to launch a €10bn ($14.2bn) tender for five new offshore windpower farms. “France remains attached to nuclear power, but we are also weighing up the markets of the future and their new technologies.”

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Though nuclear power would remain the foundation of France’s energy production, “we are investing in (nuclear) safety, not in growth objectives as we are doing in renewables,” Ms Kosciusko-Morizet said.

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The ecology minister, one of a young generation of bright ambitious politicians brought into government by President Nicolas Sarkozy, is too aware of the highly sensitive nature of nuclear politics in France to say outright that she is against the construction of new reactors.

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Via http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2011/7/11/even-france-to-prioritize-renewable-over-nuclear-energy.html

Related information:

2008: French environment minister said 2nd EPR would be "marginal" for electricity production
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=299879&mesg_id=300034

April 2011: French Nuclear Safety Authority cannot rule out moratorium on Flamanville reactor
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x285400

July 2011: France includes nuclear power exit among options (three quarters of French want full exit)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=303585&mesg_id=303585

France phasing out nuclear even if they don't know it, "peak nuclear" was around 2006:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=299879&mesg_id=299893