N1BOS — broadcast
20261012 020000 UTC
219 transcript segments
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[00:00:04] has capacity of 1600 megw, making it one of the
[00:00:07] largest nuclear reactors in the EU. the facility covers
[00:00:11] about 14% of Finland's electricity
[00:00:14] production. the company's press officer says
[00:00:17] public concerns were minimal. we have been
[00:00:20] measuring for 40 years this, what people
[00:00:24] fear and what what how do they like nuclear power and
[00:00:27] they they like? lot
[00:00:30] today, they are not afraid of the waste, it's not a
[00:00:34] major concern anymore, we have solution here in all kilo,
[00:00:38] so the support for nuclear is good in
[00:00:41] every party,
[00:00:44] but there were some problems here too, construction was supposed to
[00:00:48] last from 2005 to 2009, but in the
[00:00:51] end it took 14 additional years. the project was
[00:00:55] plagued with delays including loose parts in the turbine and issues
[00:00:59] with the... ation and control system after multiple
[00:01:03] repairs, the final cost had 11 billion euros,
[00:01:06] about four times the original budget, so
[00:01:10] we were we were pioneers, so there was a long break that nobody was
[00:01:13] building here in western Europe, nuclear
[00:01:17] power, so the readiness to
[00:01:20] build was not very good, and also the
[00:01:24] power plant was new design and it
[00:01:27] was uh not... designed in
[00:01:30] detail level, so plans were changed during the
[00:01:34] project, but there were no protests over the
[00:01:38] delays and soaring costs, and now the
[00:01:41] new plant is delivering electricity to the
[00:01:43] country. as in France, in Finland,
[00:01:46] nuclear energy is considered green energy. the
[00:01:50] operator has proudly called the new reactor Finland's largest
[00:01:54] climate
[00:01:54] project.
[00:01:58] Finland is one of several.
[00:02:30] "and compare that to investments in new
[00:02:33] nuclear power plants and other options, then I
[00:02:36] believe renewables will ultimately have an
[00:02:40] trying to catch a roadrunner. enormous cost advantage over other concepts."
[00:02:44] Finland though, has chosen the path of nuclear power.
[00:02:48] Here, people are convinced that ultimately electricity will
[00:02:51] be far cheaper with nuclear power than without
[00:02:54] it. The finish operators don't understand
[00:02:57] Germany's nuclear phaseout. because big country like
[00:03:01] Germany, very big country, so if you want
[00:03:05] to reach reach 100% renewables and
[00:03:08] electricity systems, we haven't seen
[00:03:11] it yet in a big country, so all the best for the
[00:03:15] for this challenging effort
[00:03:18] that uh that you can hopefully
[00:03:21] do without nuclear power, but the our solution
[00:03:24] is is nuclear and renewables
[00:03:27] together, the fins have... also found solution
[00:03:31] for the nuclear waste. Geologist Johanna
[00:03:35] Savunan is on her way to the construction site near the power
[00:03:38] plants. At more than 450 meters
[00:03:41] below ground, the world's first permanent repository for
[00:03:45] high-level radioactive waste is taking
[00:03:48] shape.
[00:03:51] Underground tunnels will soon store spent fuel rods for thousands of
[00:03:55] years. The nuclear waste bunker has attracted
[00:03:58] worldwide attention.
[00:04:01] "I feel proud, I feel proud that we are taking action in
[00:04:05] a difficult manner and not just waiting for some
[00:04:09] others to show the way. I feel that this
[00:04:13] is an issue that needs to be solved, and I'm I feel proud
[00:04:16] that Finland is doing exactly that.
[00:04:20] 300 meters long and carved into granite bedrock, the
[00:04:23] tunnels will one day store highly radioactive nuclear
[00:04:27] waste, an elevator will bring..." the copper canisters
[00:04:31] filled with spent fuel elements down into the
[00:04:34] repository. each canister will be placed in a
[00:04:37] hole. the holes and the tunnel will be plugged with
[00:04:40] bentonite and the tunnel finally will be sealed with
[00:04:44] concrete. the onkalo repository will go
[00:04:47] online in 2026. the
[00:04:50] waste will remain here for over 100 thousand years until
[00:04:53] it is only minimally radioactive.
[00:04:56] radioactive waste is quite uh...
[00:05:00] difficult subject and people don't know lot about
[00:05:04] it, so people tend to be afraid of something they don't know
[00:05:07] about.
[00:05:09] Many Fins place great trust in the work of their. criteria,
[00:06:14] that sets us apart from many countries in the world, including
[00:06:17] Finland, where the search followed a completely different process and
[00:06:21] the public debate was very
[00:06:22] different.
[00:06:27] Finland is the first country in the world to develop a long-term
[00:06:31] storage plan for its nuclear
[00:06:33] waste. And the reactors
[00:06:36] and supply the fins with
[00:06:39] electricity for decades to come.
[00:06:47] By 2030, Germany aims to generate 80%
[00:06:51] of its electricity from renewables like wind and solar
[00:06:54] power. A key part of this green energy
[00:06:58] transition is battery storage. It
[00:07:01] stores excess energy for later use when demand is
[00:07:04] high. That helps stabilize the power grid and prevent
[00:07:08] overloads.
[00:07:42] major German energy company, soon he
[00:07:45] won't just be selling electricity from gas and hard cold power
[00:07:49] plants, he'll also be buying and storing
[00:07:51] it.
[00:07:54] By spring 2026, new battery system will be running
[00:07:58] here, it can deliver 50 megaws of
[00:08:01] electricity about the output of a small gas
[00:08:04] plant for 4
[00:08:05] hours.
[00:08:08] Because it's plugged straight into the grid, the battery can store.
[00:08:12] plus renewable power and release it when demand
[00:08:15] rises, turning those swings into
[00:08:18] profit.
[00:08:21] ultimately we're taking a business risk, but we believe
[00:08:24] flexibility is key for the energy
[00:08:26] transition.
[00:08:29] right now it feels like a gold rush. prices on the power
[00:08:33] exchange fluctuate daily as seen from a July weekly
[00:08:37] chart. during the day, solar floods the grid
[00:08:41] and prices drop. In the evening and early morning,
[00:08:44] fossil plants ramp up and prices rise. Battery
[00:08:48] storage systems profit from those
[00:08:50] swings. Think of it like squirrels gathering
[00:08:54] nuts. We trade every 15 minutes, often the same
[00:08:57] energy again and again. Sometimes it's
[00:09:00] just tiny price differences, but over time you scoop up the
[00:09:04] returns. This business model has been tested for about
[00:09:08] 10 years with a 15 megaw hour pilot
[00:09:10] system. German. operators have received speculative
[00:09:14] requests for battery projects totaling 500
[00:09:17] gigawatts, far above the country's peak demand.
[00:09:21] if all were built, their combined capacity could for few
[00:09:24] hours match the output of roughly 500 nuclear power
[00:09:28] plants.
[00:09:30] with growing flexibility, more storage systems and more
[00:09:33] co-locations, meaning more pairing of renewable plants with onsight battery
[00:09:37] storage, the price gaps will gradually
[00:09:39] disappear. langsam abschmelzen.
[00:09:44] On April 28, 2025, Spain and
[00:09:47] Portugal were hit by a massive blackout.
[00:09:50] Volt spiked beyond safe limits, shutting down over
[00:09:54] 20 gigawatts of plants, including four nuclear
[00:09:57] reactors. The grid's heartbeat its
[00:10:00] frequency, became unstable. Could
[00:10:03] battery storage systems have prevented
[00:10:05] it?
[00:10:08] We've observed the same thing that happened in Spain and Portugal here in our control
[00:10:11] room.
[00:11:30] That's a crucial point, so far, fossil plants have
[00:11:33] supplied reactive power almost automatically, the grid
[00:11:37] operator asks for it, the generators provide it, and
[00:11:41] electricity flows smoothly, but coal
[00:11:44] and lignite are set to be phased out by 2038 at the
[00:11:47] latest, once they're gone, reactive power
[00:11:51] won't come automatically, so a formal market needs to secure.
[00:11:55] supply, the big question is, can batteries deliver
[00:11:58] during the dark duldrums, those long stretches with little sun or
[00:12:02] wind?
[00:12:05] battery storage is being put to the test here, what role
[00:12:09] will they play in tomorrow's energy system? with mega
[00:12:12] batteries on the rise, do we even need new backup gas
[00:12:16] plants at
[00:12:17] all?
[00:12:21] dilk Uvazawa is a researcher at Aken Technical University.
[00:12:31] These battery storage systems will make us much more
[00:12:34] independent, they allow us to turn solar
[00:12:38] power into a plannable energy source for
[00:12:41] 24 or even 48 hours, but not
[00:12:44] longer.
[00:12:47] Last winter, the grid came under pressure. These energy
[00:12:51] charts show which plants supplied power and how much.
[00:12:55] Up to November 1st, wind was strong, but in the following
[00:12:59] days it dropped.
[00:13:02] The week winter sun didn't add much. Gas
[00:13:06] plants stepped in with up to 15 gigawatts and
[00:13:09] coal also ramped up to about 20
[00:13:12] gig.
[00:13:16] Two weeks later, the wind
[00:13:18] returned.
[00:13:21] Fossil plants scaled back and the dark Doldrums were over.
[00:14:31] Batteries have the edge for short-term energy
[00:14:34] storage. By contrast, hydrogen
[00:14:37] can hold huge amounts of energy for months, but
[00:14:41] producing hydrogen takes a lot of energy,
[00:14:45] ideally from renewable sources. That's what makes
[00:14:48] it green hydrogen, and it's being produced in places
[00:14:52] you might not expect.
[00:14:57] "the faste water plant does more than treat
[00:15:01] sewage, it's also hosting an experiment.
[00:15:04] Andreas hashman and lead the
[00:15:07] project. their goal is to produce renewable energy
[00:15:10] locally that can also be stored. inside this
[00:15:13] container, hydrogen is being
[00:15:15] made.
[00:15:18] here we have the heart of our power to gas system, hydrogen
[00:15:21] production. using 10 l of water.
[00:16:39] It's still a pilot program, but one day it could
[00:16:42] supply the region for 5 days when renewables fall
[00:16:45] short. Green transition expert Florian
[00:16:49] Agley likes the idea, but says that even at scale it
[00:16:52] won't produce enough hydrogen to decarbonize heavy industry like
[00:16:56] steel production. That's why government and industry are looking to
[00:17:00] hydrogen from Africa, but Egley warns against putting too much
[00:17:04] faith in the plan.
[00:17:08] We analyze what it costs to produce green hydrogen in Africa for
[00:17:11] export to Europe, we found it far more expensive than
[00:17:14] expected, mainly because financing costs are higher than
[00:17:18] expected. Investment risks in many African countries
[00:17:22] are greater than for example in Europe.
[00:17:25] Across 10,300 sites in 31 African
[00:17:29] countries, hydrogen production plants for Europe are in
[00:17:32] planning.
[00:18:07] Eggly study says investment costs are the main reason prices will
[00:18:11] sore. Interest rates are now much higher than the
[00:18:15] expected 4 to8%. In Sudan, rates are over
[00:18:19] 26%. These unexpectedly high
[00:18:22] costs for green hydrogen from Africa could slow Europe's
[00:18:26] shift to clean energy in heavy industry. And that
[00:18:30] means sustainability targets won't be met,
[00:18:33] and that would also hurt Africa.