energy strategy 2050 - Energy Europe

A flexible strategy
Nuclear power - still many arguments against
In 1985 the Danish Parliament (the Folketing) decided
that nuclear power would not be part of Danish energy
planning. There remain arguments against nuclear power
in Denmark. It would be difficult to find locations for
nuclear power plants in Denmark and there is limited
Danish growth potential in the technology, because the
technology has to be purchased from abroad. Finally,
there are still challenges with regard to safety and disposing
of radioactive waste.
Experience with regard to the economics of nuclear
power varies greatly. In many cases installations are fully
or partly owned by the state, with a number of direct or
indirect subsidies for nuclear power. Theoretical comparisons
between the economics of nuclear power and
other types of production indicate that nuclear power
provides relatively cheap electricity. In practice, however,
there are many examples of nuclear power plants which
significantly exceed budgets.
On the basis of information from the new Finnish nuclear
power plant, Olkiluoto-3, which has been plagued by
long delays and budget overshoots, investment per unit
of electricity capacity is about 3.5-times more than coal
power, approximately eight-times more than gas power
and two-three-times more than wind power. The high
investment costs of nuclear power must be recouped
through operating revenues, and this is possible if the
plants are in operation for a long time. With considerable
uncertainty, it has been estimated that for Danish
conditions, nuclear power and offshore wind power cost
almost the same, although it should be noted that the
economics of nuclear power plants are very sensitive to
interest rates.
There are system challenges linked to incorporating nuclear
power in Denmark into an electricity system dominated
by fluctuating wind power and electricity production
bound to heating. Furthermore, there are relatively
large variations in electricity consumption over a 24-hour
period in Denmark (compared with countries with more
energy-intensive industry and more electric heating, for
example Finland and Sweden). For economic and technical
reasons, nuclear power plants should preferably
operate at full capacity all the time, and therefore they
are not very suitable for adjustment to compensate for
variations in wind production.
Although there are several arguments against basing
Danish electricity production on nuclear power, at all
events Denmark will continue to trade electricity with
other countries and therefore also import electricity from
countries where nuclear power will account for a considerable
amount of electricity production in the future.
Box 2.1 Nuclear power
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Energy Strategy 2050 – from coal, oil and gas to green energy.