Europe Overview

Nuclear closures threaten coal lock-in.
Of the 94 gigawatts (GW) of installed nuclear capacity globally at risk of being prematurely retired before 2025, 45 GW are in Europe.
Nuclear as a percentage of the European Union electricity, declined from 31 to 28 percent between 2000 and 2014.
European Commission estimates electricity from nuclear nuclear will decline another 20 percent by 2025.

Germany

Germany, known as a world leader in clean energy as installed large amounts of wind and solar Germany’s electricity is still 61% dirty, 35% still coming from coal.
Even with the 20 year subsidies given to Wind and Solar, they only make up 24% of electricity generation. What will happen when the subsidies end?
Even with all new renewables added, in 2018 Germany produced 866 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, a far cry from its goal of 750 million tonnes by 2020.
In 2018, Germany’s electricity was still 10 times dirtier than France's, why? Because they are phasing out their nuclear and replacing it with coal. See more here.
In result, Germany will miss their reduction and clean energy targets for 2020, despite having spent 520 billion euros by 2025. Read more here.
In 1990 Germany’s electricity was 69% dirty in comparison to 2018 where their electricity is 61% dirty. After 28 years, Germany has only decreased their fossil fuel consumption by 8%..
As 20 year feed-in tariffs (FIT) expire only certain wind turbines will be re-powered due to the low rate of new subsidies.

Sweden has 9 reactors that provide 43 percent of its electricity. All are at risk of premature closure.
Main drivers of closure threat are anti-nuclear tax imposed by government, as well as discriminatory subsidies and mandates for wind but not nuclear.
Most nuclear reactors in Sweden are majority-owned by Vattenfall, which is a 100% state-owned utility company.
Tax = 25% of production cost and 33% of consumer price.
There is no plan to replace nuclear with alternative low-carbon energy source.
Sweden's rapid deployment of nuclear in the 1970s and 80s was the fastest scale-up of clean energy in world history.

Belgium’s 7 nuclear reactors account for 71% of Belgium’s clean energy and 38% of Belgium’s electricity
Belgium’s nuclear plants are at risk of closing and has caused the country to import more energy, in 2017 import consumption was 8% and in 2018 it increased to 22%
Between 2013 and 2018 the share of electricity from nuclear declined by 13%
With the threat of nuclear closures in 2022, EP and our allies held a nuclear pride fest in Brussels on April 2019, persuading the Belgian public to continue the fight in saving their cleanest energy source

Unless something changes, UK will lose a net 6 GW of 8 GW total of its nuclear power by 2023.
Nuclear in UK was not included in subsidies provided for wind, and efforts to build a new nuclear plant have been delayed due to political reaction against perceived high cost of a new plant at Hinkley.

Swiss voters decided in May 2017 to close down all five of the country's nuclear reactors, which provide 38 percent of the country's electricity.
Swiss nuclear plants would be replaced overwhelmingly by coal and natural gas.

France generates 75 percent of its electricity from nuclear and in 2015 passed a law that requires that nuclear power be limited to 50 percent of the country's total installed electrical capacity.

With a fossil fuel dependency and only one nuclear plant, Netherlands Electricity Mix is 86% dirty, with 50% of coming from natural gas

Their one and only nuclear power plant, Borssele, generates 3.5 % of their electricity and generates 20% of their clean electricity. (BP Global Outlook)
Even though Netherlands does not have any plans to build new reactors, they currently import 7% of their electricity from both France and Germany. (Netherlands Government)
Although, they only have one reactor, this country is intriguing in the sense that the public is relatively positive towards nuclear and are committed to keeping their nuclear.
In October, EP will be visiting the reactor at Borssele for a jubilee celebration organized by its owner, utility PZEM. We hope to work with policy makers to invest in new nuclear plants for future national energy plans.