France will need more than the six new nuclear plants already in the plans and may need to build more than 14 new ones, the French Energy Minister said a few days before the start of parliamentary debate on the issue.
Energy Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Ronacher told weekly newspaper La Tribune Dimanche that it is necessary to build more nuclear reactors and increase France’s renewable energy mix to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels from 60% to 40% by 2035.
In 2022, President Emmanuel Macron put nuclear energy at the heart of the country’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, announcing the construction of six new reactors and studies for eight more.
The new plants are to be built and operated by state energy company EDF, with tens of billions of euros in public funding mobilized for projects to protect EDF’s finances.
The new energy strategy must be turned into law and Parliament must debate it at the end of January.