Renewable Energies Increase, Fossil Fuels Replacement and Nuclear Option Assessment in the Portuguese Energy Mix

Due to the increase in annual electricity consumption occurring in Portugal and the rising price of fossil fuels, it is imperative to diversificate the energy sources available. The Portuguese investment in renewable energies has increased significantly in the past few years, especially in wind energy. Renewable energies are intermittent and dependent on weather conditions, so fossil fuels are still an important part of the Portuguese energy mix, but with tendency to decrease in the future. In this paper, the nuclear option has been considered alongside the renewable energies increase to reduce fossil fuels dependency, envisaging several plausible scenarios for fuel prices, installed capacity and investment costs.