Belgium – Belgium must extend the lifetime of its nuclear power plants to ensure sufficient low-emission power supply in the face of expensive subsidies for offshore wind energy, says Febeliec, the federation representing Belgium’s large industrial energy consumers.

Subsidies that help boost Belgium’s offshore wind sector are very costly, according to Febeliec’s Andreas Tirez. The cost of offshore wind energy only began to fall when it was affected by the 2016 Dutch tender for the Borssele 1 and 2 offshore wind projects, albeit “with some delay.”

Meanwhile, Belgium shut down 2 GW of nuclear capacity in 2022 and 2023 as part of earlier plans to phase out nuclear power by 2025. But after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Belgium decided to extend the life cycle of 2 GW of nuclear capacity by 10 years from 2025.

Belgium plans to increase the share of renewables in its energy mix by tripling offshore wind capacity and doubling solar capacity by 2030. Tirez said he hoped a future Belgian government would favor extending the life of the country’s remaining nuclear reactors.