Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:04has capacity of 1600 megw, making it one of the
00:00:07largest nuclear reactors in the EU. the facility covers
00:00:11about 14% of Finland's electricity
00:00:14production. the company's press officer says
00:00:17public concerns were minimal. we have been
00:00:20measuring for 40 years this, what people
00:00:24fear and what what how do they like nuclear power and
00:00:27they they like? lot
00:00:30today, they are not afraid of the waste, it's not a
00:00:34major concern anymore, we have solution here in all kilo,
00:00:38so the support for nuclear is good in
00:00:41every party,
00:00:44but there were some problems here too, construction was supposed to
00:00:48last from 2005 to 2009, but in the
00:00:51end it took 14 additional years. the project was
00:00:55plagued with delays including loose parts in the turbine and issues
00:00:59with the... ation and control system after multiple
00:01:03repairs, the final cost had 11 billion euros,
00:01:06about four times the original budget, so
00:01:10we were we were pioneers, so there was a long break that nobody was
00:01:13building here in western Europe, nuclear
00:01:17power, so the readiness to
00:01:20build was not very good, and also the
00:01:24power plant was new design and it
00:01:27was uh not... designed in
00:01:30detail level, so plans were changed during the
00:01:34project, but there were no protests over the
00:01:38delays and soaring costs, and now the
00:01:41new plant is delivering electricity to the
00:01:43country. as in France, in Finland,
00:01:46nuclear energy is considered green energy. the
00:01:50operator has proudly called the new reactor Finland's largest
00:01:54climate
00:01:54project.
00:01:58Finland is one of several.
00:02:30"and compare that to investments in new
00:02:33nuclear power plants and other options, then I
00:02:36believe renewables will ultimately have an
00:02:40trying to catch a roadrunner. enormous cost advantage over other concepts."
00:02:44Finland though, has chosen the path of nuclear power.
00:02:48Here, people are convinced that ultimately electricity will
00:02:51be far cheaper with nuclear power than without
00:02:54it. The finish operators don't understand
00:02:57Germany's nuclear phaseout. because big country like
00:03:01Germany, very big country, so if you want
00:03:05to reach reach 100% renewables and
00:03:08electricity systems, we haven't seen
00:03:11it yet in a big country, so all the best for the
00:03:15for this challenging effort
00:03:18that uh that you can hopefully
00:03:21do without nuclear power, but the our solution
00:03:24is is nuclear and renewables
00:03:27together, the fins have... also found solution
00:03:31for the nuclear waste. Geologist Johanna
00:03:35Savunan is on her way to the construction site near the power
00:03:38plants. At more than 450 meters
00:03:41below ground, the world's first permanent repository for
00:03:45high-level radioactive waste is taking
00:03:48shape.
00:03:51Underground tunnels will soon store spent fuel rods for thousands of
00:03:55years. The nuclear waste bunker has attracted
00:03:58worldwide attention.
00:04:01"I feel proud, I feel proud that we are taking action in
00:04:05a difficult manner and not just waiting for some
00:04:09others to show the way. I feel that this
00:04:13is an issue that needs to be solved, and I'm I feel proud
00:04:16that Finland is doing exactly that.
00:04:20300 meters long and carved into granite bedrock, the
00:04:23tunnels will one day store highly radioactive nuclear
00:04:27waste, an elevator will bring..." the copper canisters
00:04:31filled with spent fuel elements down into the
00:04:34repository. each canister will be placed in a
00:04:37hole. the holes and the tunnel will be plugged with
00:04:40bentonite and the tunnel finally will be sealed with
00:04:44concrete. the onkalo repository will go
00:04:47online in 2026. the
00:04:50waste will remain here for over 100 thousand years until
00:04:53it is only minimally radioactive.
00:04:56radioactive waste is quite uh...
00:05:00difficult subject and people don't know lot about
00:05:04it, so people tend to be afraid of something they don't know
00:05:07about.
00:05:09Many Fins place great trust in the work of their. criteria,
00:06:14that sets us apart from many countries in the world, including
00:06:17Finland, where the search followed a completely different process and
00:06:21the public debate was very
00:06:22different.
00:06:27Finland is the first country in the world to develop a long-term
00:06:31storage plan for its nuclear
00:06:33waste. And the reactors
00:06:36and supply the fins with
00:06:39electricity for decades to come.
00:06:47By 2030, Germany aims to generate 80%
00:06:51of its electricity from renewables like wind and solar
00:06:54power. A key part of this green energy
00:06:58transition is battery storage. It
00:07:01stores excess energy for later use when demand is
00:07:04high. That helps stabilize the power grid and prevent
00:07:08overloads.
00:07:42major German energy company, soon he
00:07:45won't just be selling electricity from gas and hard cold power
00:07:49plants, he'll also be buying and storing
00:07:51it.
00:07:54By spring 2026, new battery system will be running
00:07:58here, it can deliver 50 megaws of
00:08:01electricity about the output of a small gas
00:08:04plant for 4
00:08:05hours.
00:08:08Because it's plugged straight into the grid, the battery can store.
00:08:12plus renewable power and release it when demand
00:08:15rises, turning those swings into
00:08:18profit.
00:08:21ultimately we're taking a business risk, but we believe
00:08:24flexibility is key for the energy
00:08:26transition.
00:08:29right now it feels like a gold rush. prices on the power
00:08:33exchange fluctuate daily as seen from a July weekly
00:08:37chart. during the day, solar floods the grid
00:08:41and prices drop. In the evening and early morning,
00:08:44fossil plants ramp up and prices rise. Battery
00:08:48storage systems profit from those
00:08:50swings. Think of it like squirrels gathering
00:08:54nuts. We trade every 15 minutes, often the same
00:08:57energy again and again. Sometimes it's
00:09:00just tiny price differences, but over time you scoop up the
00:09:04returns. This business model has been tested for about
00:09:0810 years with a 15 megaw hour pilot
00:09:10system. German. operators have received speculative
00:09:14requests for battery projects totaling 500
00:09:17gigawatts, far above the country's peak demand.
00:09:21if all were built, their combined capacity could for few
00:09:24hours match the output of roughly 500 nuclear power
00:09:28plants.
00:09:30with growing flexibility, more storage systems and more
00:09:33co-locations, meaning more pairing of renewable plants with onsight battery
00:09:37storage, the price gaps will gradually
00:09:39disappear. langsam abschmelzen.
00:09:44On April 28, 2025, Spain and
00:09:47Portugal were hit by a massive blackout.
00:09:50Volt spiked beyond safe limits, shutting down over
00:09:5420 gigawatts of plants, including four nuclear
00:09:57reactors. The grid's heartbeat its
00:10:00frequency, became unstable. Could
00:10:03battery storage systems have prevented
00:10:05it?
00:10:08We've observed the same thing that happened in Spain and Portugal here in our control
00:10:11room.
00:11:30That's a crucial point, so far, fossil plants have
00:11:33supplied reactive power almost automatically, the grid
00:11:37operator asks for it, the generators provide it, and
00:11:41electricity flows smoothly, but coal
00:11:44and lignite are set to be phased out by 2038 at the
00:11:47latest, once they're gone, reactive power
00:11:51won't come automatically, so a formal market needs to secure.
00:11:55supply, the big question is, can batteries deliver
00:11:58during the dark duldrums, those long stretches with little sun or
00:12:02wind?
00:12:05battery storage is being put to the test here, what role
00:12:09will they play in tomorrow's energy system? with mega
00:12:12batteries on the rise, do we even need new backup gas
00:12:16plants at
00:12:17all?
00:12:21dilk Uvazawa is a researcher at Aken Technical University.
00:12:31These battery storage systems will make us much more
00:12:34independent, they allow us to turn solar
00:12:38power into a plannable energy source for
00:12:4124 or even 48 hours, but not
00:12:44longer.
00:12:47Last winter, the grid came under pressure. These energy
00:12:51charts show which plants supplied power and how much.
00:12:55Up to November 1st, wind was strong, but in the following
00:12:59days it dropped.
00:13:02The week winter sun didn't add much. Gas
00:13:06plants stepped in with up to 15 gigawatts and
00:13:09coal also ramped up to about 20
00:13:12gig.
00:13:16Two weeks later, the wind
00:13:18returned.
00:13:21Fossil plants scaled back and the dark Doldrums were over.
00:14:31Batteries have the edge for short-term energy
00:14:34storage. By contrast, hydrogen
00:14:37can hold huge amounts of energy for months, but
00:14:41producing hydrogen takes a lot of energy,
00:14:45ideally from renewable sources. That's what makes
00:14:48it green hydrogen, and it's being produced in places
00:14:52you might not expect.
00:14:57"the faste water plant does more than treat
00:15:01sewage, it's also hosting an experiment.
00:15:04Andreas hashman and lead the
00:15:07project. their goal is to produce renewable energy
00:15:10locally that can also be stored. inside this
00:15:13container, hydrogen is being
00:15:15made.
00:15:18here we have the heart of our power to gas system, hydrogen
00:15:21production. using 10 l of water.
00:16:39It's still a pilot program, but one day it could
00:16:42supply the region for 5 days when renewables fall
00:16:45short. Green transition expert Florian
00:16:49Agley likes the idea, but says that even at scale it
00:16:52won't produce enough hydrogen to decarbonize heavy industry like
00:16:56steel production. That's why government and industry are looking to
00:17:00hydrogen from Africa, but Egley warns against putting too much
00:17:04faith in the plan.
00:17:08We analyze what it costs to produce green hydrogen in Africa for
00:17:11export to Europe, we found it far more expensive than
00:17:14expected, mainly because financing costs are higher than
00:17:18expected. Investment risks in many African countries
00:17:22are greater than for example in Europe.
00:17:25Across 10,300 sites in 31 African
00:17:29countries, hydrogen production plants for Europe are in
00:17:32planning.
00:18:07Eggly study says investment costs are the main reason prices will
00:18:11sore. Interest rates are now much higher than the
00:18:15expected 4 to8%. In Sudan, rates are over
00:18:1926%. These unexpectedly high
00:18:22costs for green hydrogen from Africa could slow Europe's
00:18:26shift to clean energy in heavy industry. And that
00:18:30means sustainability targets won't be met,
00:18:33and that would also hurt Africa.