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What limits to the Integration of Variable and Intermittent Renewable Energies into Electricity Grids and consequences?

A study by Georges Sapy – Translated into English by Elisabeth Huffer – May 2024

In May 2022, Madame Agnès Pannier-Runacher was appointed Minister for Energy Transition in Madame Borne's government. For the first time in many years, energy and its long-term challenges were under the responsibility of a full-fledged Ministry, with no direct reporting to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the Ministry of Industry or the Ministry of Economy.

By Roland Masse

At a time when there is growing awareness of the need to control and reduce the impact of human activities on the environment, the production and use of energy are coming under close scrutiny. The impact of the various energy sources on public health is an essential aspect that is addressed in the paper titled “Health Costs of Energy” by Roland Masse.

For some, this is a victory, but it is not one for the climate

It is all done; after a long journey that began in the early 2000s and was accelerated following the Fukushima accident, Germany has just shut down its last nuclear reactors[1]. It has thus achieved its ambition to move away from nuclear power. For some, this is welcome, for others much less so.

The IPCC has determined that carbon neutrality will have to be reached in the second half of the 21st century if the climate objectives of the Paris Agreement are to be met. A variety of countries, cities, companies... have announced that they are going to achieve carbon neutrality, some of them well before the critical date. But are their "carbon neutrality" and that of the IPCC the same thing? Nothing is less certain.

The unexpected testimony of methane

For years, it has been known that air pollution can affect the climate. The slow rate at which global warming started in the second half of the 20th century has been attributed to the shielding role played by aerosols emitted by industry: a fraction of the solar radiation was reflected back to space. The shielding effect is one way to modulate warming. Another is to modulate the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases.

These must be corrected as soon as possible

 The crises we are experiencing (climate crisis, geopolitical crisis, economic crisis,...) remind those who had forgotten them the stakes of the energy field. The fundamental role of energy in our society is reasserted:

The summer of 2022 saw extreme weather in many parts of the world: for Europe, it was the hottest summer on record, combined with catastrophic drought; in France, high temperatures caused the premature death of more than 10,000 persons, according to INSEE[1]; heat and drought combined to breed devastating forest wildfires; destructive thunderstorms and violent Mediterranean events hit several “départements”.