Recently, the topic of the atom has increasingly entered public debate. Why is it so important that a nuclear power plant in Poland is built as soon as possible? Is renewable energy able to reduce energy costs until it is created and work in symbiosis with nuclear energy?
- Renewable energy sources, especially wind and solar, play a huge role in the energy system. Last year, the energy transformation gained momentum. According to the Fraunhofer Institute, in 2023, as much as 23.7% of Polish electricity production came from renewable sources.
- According to data provided by the International Energy Agency, nuclear energy, with approximately 413 gigawatts (GW) of capacity operating in 32 countries, is already contributing to achieving very important goals – such as minimizing the climate crisis.
- It should also be noted that these sources are relatively cheap to build and allow for significant savings in the short term. However, it should be emphasized that the volume of renewable energy production for photovoltaic farms and wind turbines depends on the time of day, weather and region.
There are currently 440 nuclear reactors in operation in 32 countries around the world. According to data provided by the International Energy Agency, nuclear energy, with approximately 413 gigawatts (GW) of capacity operating in 32 countries, is already contributing to achieving very important goals – such as minimizing the climate crisis.
Moreover, thanks to these plants, we avoid 1.5 gigatonnes (Gt) of global emissions and 180 billion cubic meters (bcm) of global gas demand per year. Let’s think about how much more we could improve these results if there were more nuclear power plants and renewable energy sources?
In the face of today’s global energy crisis, reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels is a national security priority.
Obtaining energy from renewable energy sources is effective, but requires safe diversification
Therefore, it is worth ensuring appropriate diversification of energy sources and looking in a slightly different direction. Renewable energy sources (RES) and properly used and relatively cheap seasonal heat storage may prove to be an important support for nuclear energy, which is also based on fossil fuel – only in this case not coal or gas, but uranium.
Moreover, renewable energy technologies can be quickly implemented both in heating and in selected power plants. This is quite an important issue from the perspective that we still have to wait for the first nuclear power plants – explains Dr. Kamil Kwiatkowski, director of research projects, Euros Energy.
Renewable energy is a very effective solution that allows us to reduce CO2 production2 to the atmosphere. When the system is additionally supported by ecological, local sources, such as biogas plants, it can significantly help ensure safe, diversified and low-emission power systems and energy independence.
Therefore, it is worth consistently developing renewable energy sources along with electricity storage and seasonal heat storage, and systematically improving energy efficiency.
Can renewable energy and nuclear complement each other contribute to increasing energy security?
Renewable energy sources, especially wind and solar, play a huge role in the energy system. Last year, the energy transformation gained momentum. According to the Fraunhofer Institute, in 2023, as much as 23.7% of Polish electricity production came from renewable sources.
Moreover, in 2024 we can expect further records of electricity production from photovoltaics and wind turbines, all this despite the dramatic scale of refusals to connect new renewable energy sources to the power grid (which also indicates the dynamic development of the sector).
It should also be noted that these sources are relatively cheap to build and allow for significant savings in the short term. Of course, it should be emphasized that the volume of renewable energy production for photovoltaic farms and wind turbines depends on the time of day, weather and region.
These factors cause high (although predictable) variability in its generation. Electricity storage is a direct answer to this problem because it will store the energy produced during peak production (e.g. on a sunny, windy day) and release it when production decreases (e.g. at night or on calm days) or in the event of a power outage .
Heat and cold storage facilities, which are still not widely used in Poland, also play a very important role. They can be charged using electricity during times of large overproduction of renewable energy sources and discharged when there is no production of renewable energy sources. In this way, they increase the flexibility and stability of the power grid.
Combining renewable energy sources with nuclear energy seems to be a future direction for the Polish energy industry, combining the advantages of both technologies: sustainable and renewable energy production from renewable energy sources and stable and low-emission production from nuclear power plants – sums up Dr. Kamil Kwiatkowski, Director of Research Projects, Euros Energy. At this point, we still have to wait a little longer for a nuclear power plant, but thanks to the technology demonstrators currently being implemented, we can show in practice what modern and decarbonized heating may look like in the future, based on, among others, on renewable energy. Such projects also give us a chance to meet EU requirements while we wait for nuclear power, he adds.
It is worth recalling that the European Parliament agreed to recognize nuclear energy as “green energy” during the transition period of moving away from coal.
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