Today, all electricity is sold at a high price, even if production costs remain cheap, such as renewable energy (wind turbines and solar panels, for example) or nuclear power plants. It is electricity from gas-fired power plants that drives up prices.
Separate the two, says Vande Lanotte. Then you can put a (low) ceiling on cheap, sustainable, and nuclear energy. Only: then we can no longer let the market play, and electricity can no longer be exported to countries willing to pay more. “It’s a very strict emergency economic law that imposes a lot of restrictions.”
In principle, such a thing is not possible, says Vande Lanotte, because contracts are made, but these are also exceptional times that require exceptional measures, he explains. “We’re at war, but we don’t realize it. To this day, the free market is allowed to play, but you can’t do that in a war.”
It is compared with the financial crisis, where many contracts were not respected, and exceptional measures were taken. “Then they said: It’s about the financial survival of a country. But now it’s about the financial survival of our industry, our employment, and the people themselves.”
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