No surprise, as you live somewhere with a reliable grid. I do not. My Mexican neighbors refer to electric power as luz = light (by far the main use in their homes), not power. I need reliable “clean” and stable power, and by far the best way to get that is solar. Rather than go with a big gas fueled generator, which is also expensive and horrifically noisy, solar panels are a great choice.
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Well, if the changes create more grid instability then pushing for more of them sooner leads to more grid problems. Another example: political pressure lead Germany to shut down operating nuclear power reactors when wind and solar weren’t ready to take up the slack. This led to a large dependence on Russian natural gas and…well, you know the rest of that story.
You’ve mentioned roads a couple of times. Roads and the electrical grid have significant differences. You can pave County Road A with only minimal impact on County Road B. Traffic can back up on the road to your favorite vacation spot while a similar backup on the grid can crash things.
DB2
Another example, this one from Los Angeles. LA has three nat gas power plants. Back in 2020 politics pushed their shutdown. The engineers said it was a bad idea. After some rolling blackouts the shutdowns were pushed back to 2023. In 2023 the shutdowns were pushed back to 2026. We shall see what happens next year, but the political pressure would have had them off five years ago, despite what the engineers said.
DB2
The Spanish experience may have had an influence on this French moratorium.
France decides on moratorium for new wind and solar plants
The French National Assembly has approved a moratorium on the expansion of wind and solar power plants…
It stipulates that no new plants may be approved, extended or put into operation until further notice.
The motion states that the moratorium applies “for the period necessary to carry out an independent, thorough and objective study to determine the optimal energy mix for France from both an economic and environmental point of view”.
DB2
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Yes, the recent experience on the Iberian peninsula might have influenced this move.
Or, maybe some people in the French Assembly realized that France already has some of the cleanest electricity in Europe, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to build up a large amount of new solar or wind power. France’s electricity generation is currently about 6% from fossil fuels (mostly natural gas). Going lower than that might not be feasible, since France owns the island of Corsica, plus some other minor islands in the Atlantic. Those islands are probably always going to have fossil fuel generation, if they don’t have undersea connections to the mainland.
France’s electricity mix:
Chart from here, that shows the complete breakdown.
Adding a lot of new wind or solar just means something else would need to be curtailed. That something else would probably be either nuclear or hydro. Since nuclear and hydro are both zero carbon, it doesn’t really save anything to add a bunch of new wind or solar.
_ Pete
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Except that nukes make the Greens twitch.
Steve
LOL! Renewables at 90% and nuclear at 10% with lots of energy storage will be the future in the US, Canada and Europe.
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Corsica has ample solar which can be paired with wind and energy storage to reduce fossil fuels to zero. The Atlantic islands have ample wind which can be paired with solar and energy storage to reduce fossils fuels to zero.
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France rejected moratorium on expansion of wind and solar on 6/25/2025.
France’s National Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament, turned down with a large majority a bill amendment that would have imposed a moratorium on solar and wind permitting, it was announced on Tuesday.
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