French Exec: Europe Faces Electrical Shortage Starting in 2008

California isn't the only region in the world with electricity supply problems. Here's something from Forbes, via AFP:

Gerard Mestrallet, chief executive of Suez SA, said Europe runs the risk of electricity shortages in the coming years unless major investments are made to raise production capacity.

"After having lived under the illusion that nuclear energy had created overcapacity, experts recognize today, for the first time, that we risk a shortfall of electricity from 2008," Mestrallet told French financial weekly Capital.

"Over the past 20 years, there have not been enough production sites built in Europe' to meet growing demand," he said. "The supply of electricity is already stretched in certain regions, like in Brittany or the south of France."

Germany's decision to phase out nuclear energy, and the decline of oil reserves in the North Sea, will mean that Europe will eventually have to begin importing almost all its fossil fuel requirements, he added.

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