Left: The Cattenom nuclear power station near LuxembourgRight: Wind power in France; turbines in Lower NormandyBottom: The Cruas nuclear power plant at night.
The electricity sector in France is dominated by its nuclear power, which accounted for 71.7% of total production in 2018, while renewables and fossil fuels accounted for 21.3% and 7.1%, respectively (compare to 72.3% nuclear, 17.8% renewables and 8.6% fossil fuels in 2016).National yearly power generation by source, Réseau de Transport d'Électricité (Electricity Transmission Network Company) Open Data. France has the largest share of nuclear electricity in the world, and together with renewable energy supplies, this has helped its grid achieve very low carbon intensity.
France's electrical grid is part of the synchronous grid of Continental Europe and due to a historical oversupply of nuclear power it is the world's largest net exporter of electricity..Germany Power Market, Enerdata Yearbook Publication 2011
The French nuclear power sector is almost entirely owned by the French government. The electricity sector in France will evolve in the coming years partly based on objectives defined by the government in its Strategy for Energy and Climate and its National Low Carbon Strategy.
Consumption In 2008 consumption of electricity was on average 8,233 kWh/person. This corresponded to 110% of the EU15 average (7,409 kWh/person) and 91% of the OECD average (8,991 kWh/person).Energy in Sweden, Facts and figures, The Swedish Energy Agency, (in Swedish: Energiläget i siffror), Table: Specific electricity production per inhabitant with breakdown by power source (kWh/person), Source: IEA/OECD 2006 T23 , 2007 T25 , 2008 T26 , 2009 T25 and 2010 T49 .
Electricity per person and by power source
+ Electricity per capita in France (kWh/ hab.) Use Production Export Exp. % Fossil Nuclear Nuc. % Other RE* Bio+waste Wind Non RE use* RE %* 2004 8,204 9,203 999 12.2% 849 7,209 87.9% 1,061 83 7,060 13.9% 2005 8,215 9,176 961 11.7% 970 7,201 87.7% 924 81 7,210 12.2% 2006 8,140 9,041 901 11.1% 897 6,977 85.7% 1,083 85 6,972 14.3% 2008 8,233 8,984 751 9.1% 853 6,872 83.5% 1,168 91 6,974 15.3% 2009 7,951 8,351 400 5.0% 871 6,371 80.1% 897* 93 121* 6,840 14.0% * Other RE is waterpower, solar and geothermal electricity and wind power until 2008* Non RE use = use – production of renewable electricity * RE % = (production of RE / use) * 100% Note: European Union calculates the share of renewable energies in gross electrical consumption.
Production
Mode of production
French gross production of electricity was 557 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2014, slightly down from 570 and 567 TWh produced in 2008 and 2004, respectively. France is the world's 9th largest producer of electricity.International Energy Agency, IEA—Key World Energy Statistics 2016, published October 2016IEA Key energy statistics 2006 France is also the world's second largest producer of nuclear electricity, behind the United States and ahead of Russia and Korea. In terms of nuclear's share on the total domestic electricity generation, France has by far the highest percentage portion of any country in the world (78.4% in 2014, also see chart "Electricity production by source").
Live production and consumption of electricity can be found on the following websites: RTE eco2mix and grid watch.
+France installed capacity [GW] and production in 2020 [TWh]Installed capacity
[GW]Production [TWh]Production share [%]Nuclear61.37379.570.58Hydropower25.46660.011.16Wind power17.39134.16.34Gas12.52938.67.18Solar power10.10111.62.16Coal2.9781.60.30Oil2.8972.30.43Bioenergies2.169.91.84Total134.892537.7100
Nuclear power
France's nuclear power plants were installed as a response to the 1973 oil crisis, and are almost entirely owned by the French government and its electricity is sold to the government. According to Al Gore the degree of the government subsidy is difficult to ascertain because of a lack of transparencies in the finances of the operation.Al Gore: Our Choice, A plan to solve the climate crises, Bloomsbury 2009 page 156
The Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique is the national research body for nuclear power in France, providing RnD and advice to exploiters. The Autorité de sûreté nucléaire is charged of controlling compliance of facilities with laws and regulations. Nuclear companies include EdF and Areva. Électricité de France (EdF) is the main electricity producer. Eurodif is the uranium enrichment plant. Areva NC (France) and Rio Tinto (UK) are the top uranium companies of the world.
In 2010, as part of the progressive liberalisation of the energy market under EU directives, France agreed the Accès régulé à l'électricité nucléaire historique (ARENH) regulations that allowed third party suppliers access up to about a quarter of France's pre-2011 nuclear generation capacity, at a fixed price of €42/MWh from 1 July 2011 until 31 December 2025.
France has the largest share of electricity from nuclear power in the world. According to the IEA 70.6% of its domestic electricity was generated by nuclear power in 2020. The second was Slovakia 53.1%, third Ukraine 51.2% and followed by Hungary 48%, Bulgaria 40.8%, Belgium 39.1%, Slovenia 37.8%, the Czech Republic 37.3%, Armenia 34.5% and Finland 33.9%IEA Nuclear Share of Electricity Generation in 2020 France's nuclear reactors comprise 90 percent of EDFs capacity and so they are used in load-following mode and some reactors close at weekends because there is no market for the electricity.Stephanie Cooke (2009). In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age, Black Inc., p. 359. This means that the capacity factor is low by world standards, usually in the high seventies as a percentage, which is not an ideal economic situation for nuclear plants.
In terms of installed capacity and produced power in 2013 France was the second largest producer of nuclear energy in the world behind the United States. The installed nuclear capacity was 63.1 GW, and power production was 403.7 TWh.IEA Nuclear Share of Electricity Generation in 2013
France reprocesses its nuclear waste to retrieve plutonium and uranium for use as additional fuel. Fission products are stored in La Hague facility until a deep geological repository for high-level waste can be constructed. A repository for low-level and short-lived intermediate-level nuclear waste is already operational.
The European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) at Flamanville, the first new nuclear reactor to be built in France in 15 years, as of 2012 was expected to open in 2016 instead of the original starting date of 2012, with costs climbing to €8.5bn instead of the original estimate of €3.3bn. Further delays have since pushed the opening to 2024.
A number of nuclear power plants were forcibly shut in 2022 due to stress corrosion cracking on pipework providing primary cooling. This led to EDF to estimate a loss of of production (or around 13% of annual generation) for the year 2022 and a fall in profits of .
Hydro power Since 2010, the installed hydro electricity power capacity in France has remained stable at 25 GW and is expected to reach 25.7 GW by 2023. Its annual production however has fluctuated across the years going down to 50.8 TWh in 2011 from up to 77 TWh in 2013 which is a reflection of the use of hydroelectricity as a mean to help balance the gaps between load consumption and production. Its average load factor is 25% and in 2019 hydropower represented 12% of the production in France. In terms of installed capacity, France ranked 2nd in Europe after Norway (32 GW) and 10th in the world, China being the leader with 356 GW of hydropower installed in 2019.
Wind power
Installed wind power in France was 17,391 MW at the end of 2020, representing 13% of the overall installed capacity of the country. The share of wind power was in average 8,78% of the electricity production during 2020 with a peak to 32,49% on 27 September 2020.The load factor is estimated at 25%.
In 2020 electric energy from wind power in France is still only produced in onshore wind farms. However, wind farms are under construction and the first offshore wind farms might be connected to the grid in 2021. The government in its strategy for Energy and Climate expect to install 2.4 GW of offshore wind power by 2023.
The tendering process to build France's first five offshore wind farms began on 25 January 2011 with four sites being awarded in 2012 (Fécamp, Calvados/Courseulles-sur-Mer, Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Brieuc) and Dieppe/Le Tréport not being awarded because the electricity selling price was too high. The second round of bidding was awarded in 2014 to the Areva / GDF Suez Consortium for the construction of two wind farms (Yeu-Noirmoutier & Dieppe/Le Tréport) and a total installed capacity of 1 GW. Finally, a third round started in 2016 with the site of Dunkirk being awarded in 2019 the consortium EDF Energies Nouvelles, Innogy and Enbridge.
+EU and France Wind Energy Capacity (MW)Wind in power: 2012 European statistics February 2013YearFranceEU-27YearFranceEU-272021 - -20094,49264,712202017,391 -20083,40456,517201916,646196,63620072,45448,069201815,307181,58320061,56740,511201713,757170,859200575734,383201612,065143,307200439028,599201510,293131,545200325723,15920149,296118,950200214817,31520138,254105,69620019312,88720127,56493,9572000669,67820116,64084,0741999256,45320105,97074,767199819 -
Solar power
France had 24 GW of photovoltaics installed capacity by 2023, surpassing the government's target of 18,200 MW to 20,200 MW of installed capacity by 2023.
France had 10571 MW of photovoltaics installed capacity in 2019, and generated 10,569 GWh. The European Union had a total installed capacity of 132,500 MW in 2019. France ranked fifth in terms of installed capacity after Spain (11,065 MW), UK (13,616 MW), Italy (22,666 MW) and Germany (45,784 MW).The average load factor is estimated at 13.7%.
France's largest solar park was the Cestas Solar Park near Bordeaux, commissioned on 1 December 2015 with a capacity of 300 MW. This solar park is owned by Neoen. The second largest completed solar park was the 115 MW Toul-Rosières Solar ParkMarguerite Fund Buys Into France’s Largest Solar Park owned by EDF Renewables, a subsidiary of EDF Group.
As the number of hours with negative electricity prices increased from 352 in 2024, to 513 in 2025, France considers a change in feed-in tariff that promotes grid batteries. A 240 MW / 480 MWh battery in Cernay-lès-Reims opened in 2026.
+France solar power installed capacity and productionYearInstalled Capacity
[GW]Production [GWh]2024202324201910.57110,56920157.1387,75320101.044620
Fossil fuels France imported 22 megatonnes (Mt) of oil products for all purposes in 2014, making it Europe's largest, and the world's fourth largest net-importer of fossil oil, behind Japan (29 Mt), Singapore (26 Mt), and Indonesia (23 Mt). However, the majority of oil was used by the transportation sector (57% in 2011) and not for electricity generation.
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