Čtvrtek 28. března 2024, svátek má Soňa
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Czech energy blueprint seeks nuclear bonanza

  16:40

A massive expansion of nuclear power is called for in a Czech ministry proposal aimed at setting energy strategy for the next 50 years

foto: © ČESKÁ POZICEČeská pozice

A blueprint for Czech energy strategy over the next 50 years calls for a massive expansion of nuclear power in the country, flying in the face of recent steps by neighbor Germany to phase out nuclear plants and a cooling worldwide towards nuclear power.

The draft of the State Energy Concept drawn up by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MPO) calls for maximum reliance on local energy sources and minimum reliance on expensive imports, such as natural gas and oil, in order to boost the Central European country’s competitive position and boost its national wealth.

That largely translates into a dash for nuclear and a continued important role for locally mined local brown coal (lignite) and hard coal in the short-term, with the paper proposing abolition of existing mining limits that have been in place for the past 20 years.

‘The only acceptable replacement for coal production is nuclear power and the use of economically effective renewables.’

The draft concept, which should be finalized by the end of the year, makes a resolute statement for nuclear power to stand in for coal long-term, which currently produces around 60 percent of Czech electricity. “For the Czech economy, today, and from the long-term viewpoint, the only acceptable replacement for coal production is nuclear power and the use of economically effective renewables,” the draft document states.

No gas dash

The alternative option of a dash for gas, flagged up by the gas lobby as a real option, is frowned on by the ministry for the massive cost and energy security problems it could pose. A marked shift to gas “would increase import dependency and not be advantageous from other perspectives such as the risk of price increases, transport problems, and the enormous burden of Gross Domestic Product and the competitiveness of the Czech economy…” the draft warns.

The draft advances three alternative energy scenarios for the Czech Republic to follow: one based on current circumstances but with the scrapping of current coal mining limits; the second discounting any mid-term scrapping of mining limits; and a third based on a maximum use of electricity for heating and transport but without new renewable investment. This would see greenhouse gas emissions cut by 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050.

All three scenarios would witness a massive increase in nuclear power. In the first two scenarios, electricity produced from nuclear power would more than quadruple from 23.96 TWh in 2010 to 103.6 TWh in 2060. The Czech Republic’s reliance on nuclear power for electricity would rise from 28.9 percent to 63.7 percent over the same period.

But the nuclear take off is even more marked for the final scenario, based on the mass use of electric cars, with nuclear produced electricity rising to 139.43 TWh by 2060, or around 80 percent of total production. Czech business daily Hospodářské noviny interpreted the ministry document as meaning up to 10 nuclear power plants would have to be built in the Czech Republic over the next 50 years.

Ministry spokesman Pavel Vlček told Czech Position, however, that to speculate as to the eventual number of plants would be “unprofessional,” adding that the scenarios were still up for discussion and the future size of nuclear power plants could not be guessed at.

No limits

Controversially, the document envisages the scrapping of current environmental limits on mining brown coal in the north-west of the country so that around 750 million tonnes of coal can be mined at the ČSA mine, operated by Czech Coal, and another 104 million tonnes at the Bílina mine which is owned by a unit of Czech state-controlled power company  ČEZ.

‘Breaking the mining limits also gives CEZ many more years of cheap lignite reserves from which it can generate cash to invest in Temelín.’

Prague-based brokerage Wood & Co. picked on the coal limits news as the most important short term news coming out of the proposal. “This would put ČEZ in a better negotiating position versus Czech Coal regarding its supply agreement, which expires at the end of 2012. Czech Coal’s most recently proposed price increase, which ČEZ has rejected and which the government may limit via a coal export tax, would translate into a Kč 3.75 billion price hike for ČEZ, or 3.9 percent of its estimated 2013 EBITDA,” it said.

“Breaking the mining limits also gives ČEZ many more years of cheap lignite reserves from which it can generate cash to invest in Temelín, and pay dividends and taxes,” the brokerage added.

The ministry draft calls for the completion of mapping of hard, or black, coal reserves in the far east of the country around Frenštat so that a decision can be taken about possible mining there and at other locations. The possibility of mining in this locality near the Beskydy mountains bordering Slovakia and Poland has previously sparked protests from locals and environmental groups.

Uranium expansion

The proposal also advances security and economic reasons for continuing uranium mining at the country’s sole active mine, at Rožná in the center of the country, keeping mining in current state hands, and the possible exploitation of new sites to obtain “this highly strategic raw material.” The Czech Republic should also make sure that it can handle all stages of uranium processing and consider investment in a Czech site for treatment of uranium concentrate, possibly as a Central European joint venture together with Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Baltic States.

On strategic grounds, the draft also calls for state gas pipeline operator Mero and oil products production and storage company Čepro to remain in state hands.

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