Greenpeace Germany lobbies to stop nuclear energy from CEZ's Temelin

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@aecl.ca>]

FYI,

http://www.praguepost.cz/busi030800c.html
Czech electricity giant faces German boycott 
Greenpeace Germany lobbies firms to stop buying nuclear energy from CEZ's
Temelin power plant at year's end 
By Chris Johnstone 
Czech power generator CEZ has been threatened with an environmental boycott
of its electricity exports to Germany once production from the controversial
Temelin nuclear plant starts to flow at the end of the year. 
The threat, issued by Greenpeace Germany, comes as the Czech power giant
seeks to double its electricity exports from 10 percent of its total
production in 1999 to around 20 percent this year. Germany is by far the
biggest buyer of Czech electricity, followed by Switzerland and Italy. 
The German environmental group launched a campaign against local purchasers
of nuclear-produced electricity in February, targeting local power
companies. The attack now appears to be widened to companies that would buy
supplies from CEZ when nuclear-produced power from Temelin starts to flow in
October. 
Greenpeace says it seeks to alert electricity consumers where their power is
coming from and to persuade them to switch their purchases to more
environmentally friendly suppliers. Consumer choice has become a major
factor now that liberalization of the German power market in the past two
years has allowed households and industries to select their power supplier
from a range of companies. 
"It is a new situation where the consumer is now king," explained Greenpeace
Germany's energy expert Veit Burger. "It is too early to say what the impact
of our campaign has been so far. We will highlight sales of Czech
nuclear-generated electricity as well if this comes to the German market." 
CEZ has made no secret of its ambition to cash in on the power needs of its
mighty industrial neighbor. It set up a subsidiary this year in Germany to
alert the country to import opportunities. 
CEZ spokesman Ladislav Kriz takes the Greenpeace threat in stride. "I do not
think this campaign by environmentalists will be a success," he said. 
Greenpeace Germany's initial campaigning has focused on Energie
Baden-Wurttemberg and its newly created electricity sales subsidiary Yellow.
French state-owned electricity company Electricite de France (EDF) has
bought a 25 percent stake in Energie Baden-Wurttemberg and Greenpeace
suspects French nuclear power will now start to flow eastward. 
Bavarian electricity producer and supplier Bayernwerk is also on the
environmentalists' blacklist. "Bayernwerk and the Russian grid owner have a
kind of deal under which Russian electricity is imported by 2001," said
Burger. 
Importing nuclear-generated power is a highly sensitive issue for German
environmentalists. Having won a commitment from the Green Party-Social
Democrat government coalition that nuclear energy will be phased out in
Germany (although no date has yet been set), they are adamant that the
controversial product will not come back through the back door in the form
of cheap imports. 
CEZ, which supplies around two-thirds of the Czech Republic's electricity
needs, is also facing rising complaints from Austria that it is distorting
competition by exporting electricity there at subsidized prices. 
No case of unfair competition has yet been launched with the European
Commission in Brussels, said CEZ spokesman Kriz. "In any case, we are not
practicing dumping" -- selling at below-cost prices, he said. 
German environmentalists, however, seem convinced that CEZ is subsidizing
its export sales. "I think the price paid by Bayernwerk is 50 percent to 60
percent of the price in the Czech Republic," said Greenpeace's Burger. "The
Czech Republic has too much electricity for the local market and has to sell
abroad." 
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Comment: Actually, selling power abroad is one of the few ways for the
Czechs & other central/east-european nations to try to dig themselves out of
post-communist economic hole, while at the same time offsetting any nuclear
shutdowns in western europe - which would otherwise have adverse
environmental effects due to increased coal use (for example Swedish imports
of Danish coal power..). Some of the other high-tech opportunities for these
countries are in the aerospace business, for example Ukraine's Zenit rocket
for launching satellites into orbit, or the An-70 and An-124 Antonov cargo
aircraft, like those leased by NATO for use in the Kosovo conflict.

Jaro
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