Europe’s Heatwaves Are Putting Nuclear Power Under Pressure

Europe's energy sector is undergoing unprecedented stress as the continent grapples with a trifecta of challenges: geopolitical supply chain disruptions, relentless heatwaves, and the need to adapt its power supply accordingly. As the world's fastest-warming region, Europe must embrace extreme heat as the new norm and re-evaluate its power generation strategies. Zsuzsanna Pat, power system lead for Europe at the non-profit Regulatory Assistance Project, emphasizes the necessity of planning for this new reality.

Nuclear power, however, is bearing the brunt of this climate crisis. Rising temperatures have forced many nuclear reactors to go offline, particularly when rivers upon which they rely for cooling are too hot or low in water. Hungary's Paks nuclear power plant was forced to cut output to just over 10 percent earlier this month, narrowly avoiding a complete shutdown and a potential blackout that would have left 40 percent of the country without electricity.

Although the plant was not fully taken offline, this reduction sparked a severe spike in electricity prices, reaching a staggering 500 euros per megawatt-hour.

The issue, according to experts, is not a technological failure of nuclear power but rather a policy-driven constraint on how these riverside plants operate during extreme heat. While France faced a record pace of nuclear reactor shutdowns last July due to insufficient and safe water supplies for cooling, the country still had enough generation capacity to meet demand.

However, the price spikes, export reductions, and increased reliance on gas and oil-fired backup generation led to critical impacts on consumers, both domestically and internationally.

The Lancet study highlights the dire consequences of heatwaves on public health, with nearly half a million deaths attributed to heat between 2000 and 2019, primarily among the elderly. In the face of these challenges, utilities must adapt their models by planning for summer peaks, making cooling demand more flexible, reinforcing grids for high temperatures, and deploying batteries for energy storage.

By Simone Tagliapietra, senior fellow at economic and policy think tank Bruegel, adapting to the changing climate and geopolitical volatility is crucial to preventing energy poverty and ensuring the resilience of Europe's energy market.