Guest of franceinfo Wednesday September 14, Thierry Bros, energy specialist and professor at Sciences Po Paris was very critical after the announcements of the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, the same day. In her speech on the state of the Union, she notably defended the idea of a cap on the income of electricity producers based on renewable and nuclear energies. With the surge in electricity prices in the wake of those of gas, these companies are reselling their production well beyond their production costs, super-profits that Brussels proposes to recover to redistribute them. “I’m not sure it’s very interesting to get us out of the crisis”believes Thierry Bros, also a contributor to Natural Gas World, a site dedicated to the global gas issue.
franceinfo: What do you think of this proposal to cap the income of electricity producers based on renewable and nuclear energies?
Thierry Bros: In the end, these companies will invest less and I remind you that what concerns us is to have a growing offer, that is to say to have more energy. What should be done is to try to encourage all investments. I’m not sure that this element, certainly popular, is very interesting to get us out of the crisis [énergétique].
The European Union (EU) will set up a new public bank dedicated to the development of hydrogen. “We want to produce ten million tonnes of renewable hydrogen in the EU each year by 2030”, says Ursula Von der Leyen. Is this going in the right direction?
“I am always very surprised when I hear politicians who tell us that the solution is hydrogen. I remind you that hydrogen, for the moment, we do not know how to use it.”
Thierry Bros.at francedinfo
I also remind you that if we have to build new nuclear power plants in France, they won’t be in production until 2040. Hydrogen is beyond 2050, so I’m not sure that’s a real solution. to the crisis.
The 27 are divided on the possibility of capping the price of gas. Do you find this useful?
I think that’s a very bad idea. I believe that the European Union was built on the markets. We have always thought that the markets were the alpha and the omega, by having strong market regulation. I also remind you that until now, we are in an energy crisis which has caused prices to soar, but the market alone, and not the political leaders, has made it possible to secure the supply. If we are able to get gas today, it is because traders have re-routed shipments of liquefied natural gas which were intended for Asia to Europe, at admittedly very high prices which are not pleasing, but security of supply has been guaranteed thanks to this. Capping gas prices will have side effects. What we could have are operators who say to themselves “in the end, since the price is limited in Europe, I will rather go and sell my cargo in Asia”, and therefore we will aggravate the crisis. On the other hand, it’s something that has never worked. I recall that Gorbachev, when he came to power in the Soviet Union, there were totally regulated prices everywhere and that things didn’t work well there.