France

South Korea-based Hanwha Solutions announced it plans to acquire renewable energy developer RES France in an $855.2 million deal expected to be finalized in the next two months. RES France is a subsidiary of UK-based RES Group, which calls itself the world’s largest independent renewable energy company. The agreement announced Aug. 9 is led by […]

European Commission Probing Germany Lignite Power Compensation. The European Commission on March 2 opened an “in-depth investigation” to assess whether Germany’s plans to compensate its lignite-fired

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) announced it was awarded the firm order from the EDF Renewables-Enbridge-wpd consortium for the 448-MW Courseulles-sur-Mer offshore wind power project. The installation will be located just more than 6 miles off the Bessin coast, in an area of Normandy, France. SGRE on Feb. 22 said the wind turbine nacelles and […]

Air Liquide SA, the French industrial-gas supplier, and Germany’s Siemens Energy AG announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop electrolysis and hydrogen technology. The companies on Feb. 8 said they will collaborate on industrial-scale hydrogen projects. They said the joint venture is designed to support the development and mass manufacturing of […]

Important milestone for the development of small hydropower in France Voith wins order for the supply and installation of a vertical Kaplan turbine with 8.6 MW as well as the entire electrical and hydromechanical equipment As a full-range supplier for small hydropower, Voith offers a comprehensive service package for CNR LYON, FRANCE. Voith’s cooperation with […]

Nuclear power capacity continues to grow worldwide, as larger reactors are added to the grid while smaller units are retired. Furthermore, uprates to some existing reactors have also added to the world’s nuclear power capacity. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports the total net installed capacity is about 393 GW today. Nuclear reactor additions […]

November 16, 2020 – Framatome recently announced that it ramped up production of replacement component parts at its manufacturing plant located at Le Creusot, France. On October 28, forging operations began on the first shell that will be used for the fabrication of replacement steam generators for the French nuclear fleet. Before beginning production, Framatome […]

Howden has been awarded a contract with American based UT-Battelle (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) to supply the DYS Blowout Compressor and the Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) which will be an important part of the Tokamak Cooling Water System (TCWS). Tomkamak is a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion […]

Officials with the ITER project in France said work has started on the assembly of giant components needed for construction of an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, a project designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful use. The ITER group, in a ceremony July 28 that was broadcast online (see […]

May 4, 2020 – Framatome and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) recently began the commercial development of uranium-molybdenum fuel (UMo) for nuclear research reactors. Framatome and TUM will design and install the fuel manufacturing production line, and develop, produce and irradiate new fuel prototypes. The project will take place at the CERCA Research and Innovation […]

U.S. renewable energy advocates have warned of industry slowdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, and decried the lack of support for solar, wind, and other technologies in the recent aid package passed by Congress. It’s a different story in some foreign countries where the federal government has thrown its support behind renewable energy. France’s ecology […]

Paris, March 12, 2020 – The development of renewable energy that is intermittent and decentralized requires the security of the electricity grid through flexible electricity storage capacities, especially in the form of batteries. Total launches a battery-based energy storage project in Mardyck, at the Flandres Center, in Dunkirk’s port district. With a storage capacity of […]

France, which has long relied on reactors to supply the bulk of the country’s electricity, on Feb. 19 announced the imminent closure of the Fessenheim nuclear plant, located on the country’s border with Germany. One of the plant’s two 920-MW pressurized water reactors will shut down within days, with the second taken offline by the […]

The past 10 years have been filled with trials and tribulations for both the nuclear and coal power industries. From accidents to plant closures there has been little to cheer about. Still, nuclear and coal power continue to provide reliable baseload generation to billions of customers around the globe. Here’s a look back at the […]

A Canada-based company that wants to commercialize nuclear fusion technology announced Dec. 16 that it raised more than $100 million in its latest round of financing, doubling its financial support. General Fusion, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, is backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The company, which includes investors Bezos Expeditions and Chrysalix Venture Capital, […]

France’s nuclear research agency, Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (CEA), in September confirmed it abandoned plans to build a prototype Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial

Siemens will build a new combined cycle power plant as a turnkey project in Landivisiau in western France. The company will also operate and maintain the plant for a period of 20 years. With an installed capacity of 446 megawatts, the power plant will help to reliably cover Brittany’s growing demand for electricity. The order […]

July marks two important milestones that set gas-fired generation on its course to becoming a dominant form of power generation: commercial operation of the world’s first industrial gas turbine in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 1939, and commercial operation of the first gas turbine in the U.S. used to generate electric power—a 3.5-MW General Electric (GE) unit […]

Siemens on June 18 said it would cut 2,700 jobs from its Gas and Power division, on top of 10,400 positions the German engineering firm last month said it would jettison as part of cost-cutting measures. The Siemens’ announcement comes one day after U.S.-based rival GE said it would cut 450 jobs at two of […]

The head of GE’s operations in France told a Paris newspaper that a French factory targeted for more than 1,000 job cuts will not close. GE last week said it wanted to make its operations in France more efficient and said changes would come at the Belfort plant in eastern France, which handles technology for […]

The world’s first complete advanced nuclear fuel test assemblies containing accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) have been installed at Southern Co.’s Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant’s Unit 2 in Georgia.  Nuclear giant Framatome delivered four GAIA lead fuel assemblies containing enhanced ATF (EATF), including both pellets and cladding, to the plant owned by Georgia Power in […]

A widespread misconception persists that nuclear plants can only function as inflexible baseload sources of power—and it’s hurting prospects for the nuclear sector’s role in the world’s future power

Multinational power and gas giant ENGIE, which embarked on an aggressive transition toward zero-carbon three years ago, saw tempered revenue growth over 2018, owing in part to its disposal of thermal generation businesses in the UK and Poland, and the 1-GW Loy Yang B coal-fired power plant in Australia. ENGIE CEO Isabelle Kocher, who outlined […]

In 2017, the 10 largest power companies, ranked by their installed generation capacity, owned 18% of total global installed capacity, while the next-largest 15 owned around 10%—meaning that the top 25 companies own nearly 30% of global installed power generation capacity, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Chinese companies account for more than one-eighth of global installed […]

French labor unions on Jan. 22 said U.S.-based General Electric (GE) will cut 468 jobs at its units in France, including some staff at Alstom Power Systems (APS). GE confirmed to Agence France Press (AFP), a French news service, that talks with its unions on staff reductions are underway. The unions said 229 jobs would […]

France will shut down 14 of its 58 nuclear reactors by 2035 as well its remaining four coal power plants by 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron said November 27 in a lengthy speech that sought to clarify the country’s future energy direction. According to the World Nuclear Association, France’s nuclear power share has steadily expanded […]

A series of strikes at French nuclear plants owned by power giant EDF have caused fluctuating electricity supplies, prompting concerns as the country prepares for a prolonged cold snap. Workers are reportedly protesting wage negotiations and a possible plan by the French government to restructure EDF. The energy branch of French trade union CGT on […]

Scorching temperatures during the summer of 2018 forced a swathe of power plants across the world to reduce power or shut down temporarily, owing to warmer-than-usual temperatures of cooling water and other

Sept 19th 2018 – Floating offshore wind turbine Floatgen, the first offshore wind turbine installed off the French coast, exported its first KWh to the electricity grid. The connection of the electricity export cable and a final series of tests carried out in recent days enabled the Floatgen wind turbine, which is installed 22 km […]

Israel Embarks on a Major Electricity Reform. Under a law passed on July 19, Israel will break up a monopoly held by state-owned Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) and open the country’s electricity sector to new