Europe’s Nuclear Ambitions Face €241 Billion Funding Challenge

(Bloomberg) -- The European Union’s ambition to scale up nuclear energy as part of its 2050 climate neutrality goal will cost €241 billion ($280 billion), posing funding challenges, according to a draft document.

More than four-fifths of investment under that base-case scenario would go on building new reactors, taking the bloc’s capacity to 109 gigawatts by 2050, according to a draft of the European Commission’s Nuclear Illustrative Program seen by Bloomberg News. 

Yet the outlook for nuclear power generation remains highly uncertain, with market-based instruments to fund the expansion “lacking,” according to the draft. That underscores the challenges facing Europe’s nuclear renaissance, with the region accounting for just three of the 63 reactors under construction globally.

If new-build projects are delayed by just five years, installed capacity would fall by almost nine gigawatts, while the required investments would increase by more than €45 billion, the commission’s report shows. 

That means Europe’s nuclear ambitions rest on extending the lifetime of its aging fleet beyond 60 years. If that’s achieved, and all planned new-build projects are delivered on time, total capacity by 2050 could climb to 144 gigawatts, from around 98 gigawatts currently, according to the draft document.

Failure to do so, however, could see generation drop to less than 70 gigawatts by the middle of the century, the commission’s draft said.

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