프랑스, 핵 융합 및 천연 수소 투자 증가 계획 발표(2023.12.12)

2023.12.12

2023년6월 프랑스 로랑과 피레네 아틀랑틱의 남서 지역에서 대량의 천연수소 매장이 확인됨.

천연 수소는 그 자체로 연료로 사용 가능.

 

France unveils plan to up investments in nuclear fusion, natural hydrogen – EURACTIV.com

 

 

프랑스는 핵 융합, 천연 수소, 에너지 저장 및 탄소 포집에 대한 새로운 투자에 청신호를 줄 것이라고 엠마누엘 마크롱 대통령이 12월 11일 월요일에 발표했습니다.

마크롱 대통령은 프랑스가 2030년까지의 540억 유로 투자 계획을 기념하기 위해 월요일 툴루즈에 위치한 유럽의 항공 거장인 에어버스를 방문했습니다.

그는 산업 탄소배출을 줄이고 에너지에 대한 새로운 발표를 하기 위해 이 자리를 활용했는데, 정부가 "2024년 초에 보다 빠르고 강력하게 움직일 것"이라며 "프랑스 전략과 우리의 유럽 전략 개혁"을 추진할 것이라고 밝혔습니다.

마크롱 대통령은 "우리는 첨단 혁신을 가속화해야 합니다"라며 "융합 기술을 탐구하고 EDF의 Nuward 프로젝트와 같은 소형 원자로(SMR) 개발"이 필요하다고 강조했습니다.

"SMR뿐만 아니라 우리가 적극적으로 촉진할 두 가지 수직 분야는 융합과 초전도 자석입니다. 이를 프랑스 2030에서 강력하게 촉진하고 싶으며 이를 위해 우리의 노력을 두 배로 하고 싶습니다"라고 마크롱 대통령은 발표했습니다.

핵 융합의 잠재력은 상당하지만 해당 기술은 몇십 년 후에 운영될 것으로 예상되며, 따라서 2030년이나 심지어 2050년의 탄소배출 목표를 달성하는 데에는 역할을 할 것으로 전문가들이 Euractiv France에 전했습니다.

동시에 마크롱 대통령은 재생 에너지 개발을 지원하기 위해 에너지 저장의 대규모 확대가 필요하다고 강조했습니다.

"저는 우리가 중장기적인 저장 자원의 개발을 가속화하기를 원합니다. 이것은 특히 재생 에너지의 사용으로 인해 발전한 전기 시스템의 유연성을 더 잘 관리하고 전기 수요의 증가를 충족시키기 위해 필요합니다"라고 그는 밝혔습니다.

마크롱 대통령은 이러한 모든 도전에 부응하기 위해 "우리의 노력을 두 배로 하고 싶다"고 말했습니다.

 

 

대통령은 또한 산업 탄소배출을 가속화하기 위해 수소를 언급하며, 프랑스를 "수소 운송의 중심지로 만들겠다"고 밝혔습니다.

뿐만 아니라, 마크롱 대통령은 지구 표면 아래에서 발견된 천연 수소의 잠재력을 탐색하기 위해 "대규모 자금"을 투입할 것을 발표했습니다.

천연 수소의 존재는 1980년대부터 알려져 왔지만, 올해 6월에 포텐셜하게 개발 가능한 매장지가 로랑과 피레네 아틀랑틱의 남서 지역에서 확인되었습니다.

이러한 잠재적 매장지를 위해 당국은 12월 3일에 프랑스 최초의 천연 수소 탐사 면허를 발급했다고 대통령은 말했습니다.

자원이 풍부하고 추출 비용이 저렴하며 탄소 배출이 적을 것으로 예상되어 기대치는 높습니다.

"프랑스에서는 국가를 수소 수출국으로 만들 수 있는 양을 상상할 수 있습니다," Mikaa Blugeon-Mered라는 수소 지정 경제학 전문 강사가 6월에 Euractiv France에 말했습니다.

이 광업 탐사가 연간 300만 톤의 수소 생산을 기대하지만, 생산은 최소한 2028년까지 시작되지 않을 것으로 예상됩니다.

 

 

프랑스 지하에 수소가 존재하는 것은 프랑스 지질 매장지의 일반적인 매핑이 필요함을 보여주며, 마크롱 대통령은 이를 2024년 중순까지 가동 가능하도록 기대하고 있습니다.

프랑스 대통령은 탄소 포집, 저장 및 활용에 대한 프랑스 전략의 목표를 상기시키며 이를 언급하지 않았습니다.

프랑스와 노르웨이 사이에 이미 유럽 수준에서 파트너십이 개발되고 있으며, 이는 산업에서 포집된 탄소를 수송하고 노르웨이 해역에 있는 고갈된 석유 및 가스 광역에 저장하는 것을 목적으로 합니다.

유럽 위원회는 최근 공동 유럽 이해사업의 프로젝트 목록에서 EU 자금 지원 대상으로 여러 탄소 저장 및 수송 프로젝트를 지정했습니다.

[Frédéric Simon/Alice Taylor 편집]

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France unveils plan to up investments in nuclear fusion, natural hydrogen.

 

France will give the green light to new investments in nuclear fusion, natural hydrogen, energy storage and carbon capture, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday (11 December).

Read the French original story here.

 

프랑스는 핵 융합, 천연 수소, 에너지 저장 및 탄소 포집에 대한 새로운 투자에 청신호를 줄 것이라고 엠마누엘 마크롱 

대통령이 12월 11일 월요일에 발표했습니다.

 

Macron visited the premises of European aviation giant Airbus in Toulouse on Monday to mark the second anniversary of France’s €54 billion investment plan for 2030.

마크롱 대통령은 프랑스가 2030년까지의 540억 유로 투자 계획을 기념하기 위해 월요일 툴루즈에 위치한 유럽의 항공 

거장인 에어버스를 방문했습니다.

 

He used the occasion to make new announcements on energy and industrial decarbonisation, saying the government will aim to “move faster and stronger in the beginning of the year [2024]” with “a French strategy and the reform of our European strategy”.

 

“We need to speed up our breakthrough innovations,” the French President said, citing the need to “explore” fusion technology as well as the development of small nuclear reactors (SMR) such as EDF’s Nuward project.

 

“In addition to SMRs, which we have promoted extensively, fusion and superconducting magnets will be two vertical areas that we will strongly promote with France 2030 and on which I want us to redouble our efforts,” Macron announced.

The aim is to achieve “a level of progress that is as strong in relative terms as today’s innovative reactors” within the next two years.

 

Although the potential of nuclear fusion is considerable, the technology is not expected to be operational for several decades and is, therefore, unlikely to play a role in achieving the 2030 or even 2050 decarbonisation targets, experts told Euractiv France.

 

At the same time, Macron stressed the need for a massive expansion of energy storage to support the development of renewables.

“I want us to speed up the development of medium- and long-term storage resources to better manage the flexibility of the electricity system, made necessary in particular by the use of renewable energies, and to meet the growth in electricity demand,” he declared.

Macron said he wanted to “redouble our efforts” to meet all these challenges.

 

Natural hydrogen

The president also mentioned hydrogen to speed up industrial decarbonisation, making France “a hub for hydrogen transport”.

Moreover, Macron announced the deployment of “massive funding” to explore the potential of natural hydrogen, which is found beneath the earth’s surface.

The existence of natural hydrogen has been known since the 1980s, but it was only in June this year that it was only this year that potentially exploitable deposits were identified in the north-eastern region of Lorraine and the south-western region of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

For these potential deposits, the authorities issued France’s first natural hydrogen exploration licence on 3 December, the president said.

Expectations are high, especially as the resource is expected to be abundant, cheap to extract, and low-carbon.

“In France, it is possible to imagine quantities that could make the country an exporter,” Mikaa Blugeon-Mered, a lecturer specialising in the geopolitics of hydrogen at Sciences Po, told Euractiv France in June.

While this mining expedition is expected to produce 3 million tonnes of hydrogen annually, production will not start until 2028 at the earliest.

 

 

Critical metals and carbon capture

The presence of hydrogen in the French subsoil illustrates the need for a more general mapping of France’s geological deposits, which Macron hopes to see up and running by mid-2024.

The French president did not forget to mention carbon capture, storage and utilisation, recalling the objectives of the French strategy in this area.

Partnerships are already being developed at the European level, notably between France and Norway, to transport carbon captured from industries and store it in the Norwegian waters in depleted oil and gas fields.

In its latest list of projects of common European interest, the European Commission has made several carbon storage and transport projects eligible for EU funding.

[Edited by Frédéric Simon/Alice Taylor]