France is the latest country to reconsider its energy options due to the war in Ukraine and announced on Sunday it is looking into reopening a recently closed coal-fired power plant.
The Energy Transition Ministry said it was considering reopening the station at Saint-Avold in eastern France this winter “given the situation in Ukraine” and the impact on energy markets.
“We are keeping open the possibility of being able to put the Saint-Avold transmitter back into operation for a few hours next winter, if necessary,” said a statement from the ministry, which confirmed a report by RTL Radio.
But France would still produce less than 1 percent of its electricity from coal-fired power, and no Russian coal would be used, the statement added.
President Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to eventually shut down all of France’s coal-fired power plants remained unchanged, the ministry’s statement said.
Saint-Avold only closed on March 31, and the only coal-fired power plant still operational in France is at Cordemais in the west of the country.
Most of France’s electricity generation comes from nuclear power: 67 percent in 2020. Coal accounted for just 0.3 percent in the same year.
Austria, Germany and the Netherlands recently announced plans to increase the use of coal for their energy needs due to the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The war there has pushed up global energy prices and raised the prospect of shortages if supplies are disrupted.
Russian energy giant Gazprom has already halted supplies to a number of European countries, including Poland, Bulgaria, Finland and the Netherlands.
But the return to fossil fuels has raised alarms from the European Commission and environmentalists.
They point to the risk that the European Union will miss its targets to reduce polluting energy sources and potentially catastrophic climate impacts.
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