Drought idles Europe's nuclear and hydro plants
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- Paks Nuclear Power Plant shut down all but one of its eight turbines for the first time in its history after the Danube's water levels collapsed, with PM Péter Magyar pleading from the site for citizens to curb evening power use between 5pm and 10pm.
- Romania's naval engineers blew up a rock outcrop this week to redirect more Danube water toward the Cernavodă nuclear plant and avoid a total shutdown, while Slovenia and France also idled reactors because of high temperatures and low river flows.
- European hydropower generation fell to its lowest level in more than a decade in July 2026 according to Ember, and Montel says 32% of Italy's gas-fired fleet is threatened by a lack of cooling water drawn from rivers and canals.
- Solar power delivered record EU generation in June 2026 and supplied up to 80% of Hungary's daytime power, but the article notes the technology is useless for the evening peak when air-conditioning demand persists into the early hours.
- Wholesale electricity prices during the evening peak exceeded €300 per megawatt hour in Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary earlier this week, roughly double the normal €100–150/MWh range.
- Heatwave-driven demand jumps by around 20% during extreme heat due to air-conditioning use, on top of June 2026 being confirmed as the hottest June on record for Europe, with Ember analyst Chris Rosslowe expecting hydropower to remain depressed into August.
Why it matters: Magyar warned that the coming days will be "critical" for Hungary's energy supply, and Ember's Rosslowe told New Scientist he expects hydropower to remain at very low levels into August with no rain in the near forecast. With four Central European countries already seeing evening wholesale prices roughly double normal levels, governments are leaning on public appeals and voluntary industrial curbs rather than blackouts—an arrangement that holds only as long as the weather does.
