Europe’s Nuclear Plants Can’t Beat the Heat
China Tightens Its Grip on Namibia's Next Energy Boom Haley Zaremba is an energy journalist and researcher with more than a decade of professional experience covering global energy systems, land and natural resources, and… Europe’s blistering heat wave is threatening energy security across the continent as power plants shut down and the risk of rolling blackouts rises.
Electric grids are overstressed, and ecosystems are too.
Rivers are greatly affected by soaring temperatures, which in turn impacts the energy industry and power plants that rely on that water supply for their cooling systems.
Just this week, Franceannouncedthat it will reduce production at as many as five nuclear power plants, with two already curbing output this week.
France is expected to receive the worst of a coming high-pressure heat dome over the next few weeks, with temperatures soaring to as high as 42 Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) in some parts of the country on Wednesday.
When Europe experienced asimilar heat wave last month, a transformer failed, leaving nearly 70,000 households without power as temperatures reached deadly levels.
The country recorded its hottest day ever on record, with temperatures reaching a blistering 44 °C (111 °F).
These temperatures are not only deadly to humans, they are also a huge threat to the ecosystem.
Rivers are growing hotter under these conditions, and one of the impacts of that change is that their waters are no longer as effective for cooling down nuclear power plants, which serve as the backbone of France’s energy mix.
As a result, the country anticipates needing to curb production at plants around the country at the very same time that demand is surging.
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It’s a sad irony that just as electricity is needed more than ever to keep indoor temperatures at survivable levels, the power grid is most likely to fail.
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