nucleareurope discusses pathways to 2050 at AIN Annual Conference
On 3 December 2024, nucleareurope Director General Yves Desbazeille gave a keynote presentation on the recent “Pathways to 2050” report, in the framework of the Italian Nuclear Association (AIN) Annual Conference, taking place in Rome.
In his intervention, Yves outlined the contributions of nuclear to the European energy system, noting that Europe benefits from nuclear’s production of reliable, baseload power, especially at times when weather conditions hinder renewables production. He added that nuclear is set to play a key role to achieve net-zero by 2050, highlighting that its potential for producing vast amounts of clean electricity is recognised globally.
“We have seen in the past months many major tech companies such as Microsoft, Google or Amazon invest in nuclear energy. This will allow them to power their data centres with clean electricity available around the clock” said Yves, listing recent investments from Big Tech in both large and small nuclear.
After detailing the key role played by nuclear in the European energy system, Yves highlighted the importance of maintaining existing capacity and investing in new nuclear, stressing that more nuclear will allow the EU to decarbonise faster and at lower costs, while ensuring security of supply. He then reiterated nucleareurope’s call for technology neutrality in EU policy making, and stressed that while nuclear’s contributions are increasingly recognised by policymakers – with for example the creation of the European Industrial Alliance for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) – there remains a number of files where nuclear is not treated on an equal footing with renewables, especially in terms of access to funding and financing.
Citing the target of 150GW of nuclear installed capacity in the EU by 2050, Yves then outlined the main findings from the “Pathways to 2050” report, which highlights how aiming for this objective will save around 430 million tonnes of CO2, save €310 billion in total energy system costs, reduce gas consumption by about 180 billion cubic metres and reduce dependence on hydrogen imports by up to 33%.
Concluding his intervention, Yves stressed that such an objective could only be reached if key enablers are implemented by policy makers, industrial stakeholders, consumers, regulators, civil society and trade unions to support the development of additional nuclear capacity in the EU.