Government’s focus on nuclear power in Hungary

The government’s RES-E strategy has been developed in the shadow of the Paks 2 nuclear power plant. The Paks nuclear power plant, Hungary’s only operating nuclear power station, currently accounts for over 40% of the country’s electricity production, but is set to be substituted with Paks 2 towards the end of the 2020s or the beginning of the 2030s. Renewables' development has consistently been subjugated to Paks 2, which thus yields impediments in policy and infrastructure designs. Nonetheless, the government has voiced a strong role for PV in Hungary's future energy mix, which would comprise of nuclear providing baseload generation and solar contributing to meeting additional demand. Thus, the severity of the issue is mixed, because the government has allowed for solar PV to develop and the diffusion of the technology has been robust. However, if the focus on nuclear was not this strong, renewables could expand at an even greater pace.