France feeds half of Europe with electricity, this year it has higher exports – Médium.cz

France is unusually generous this year, in every possible way. It peaked this summer. She first showed the world how to stop the far right from winning the election by winning the left side. Then she played much more magnificently in the final of the football Euro Spain. And finally she arranged the Olympics at a time when no one wants to do it anymore. Thanks to this, we learned that gender determination it doesn’t have to be as fun as it seems at first sight, even sushi can be really good get very fat and sometimes they reach a base of 4 cm to lose and sometimes residence.

The above avalanche of events and non-events (hello, nameless institute!) comes at us from all sides every day, and some of us prefer not to open the refrigerator even in an effort to prevent total excess. No wonder we completely missed the most amazing French generosity – in energy! That is, in the area that is already at least from autumn 2021 we consider it one of the most important (or at least we should).

Since the beginning of this year, the French have achieved it of net exports 52.1 TWh. That would be a good amount even for the whole year! If we look around the rest of Europe, we find that the other Swedes are barely up to their knees in this respect, while the rest of the more “green” countries crouch somewhere between the middle calf and ankle. On the other hand, a new axis, with a continuous lack, and thus the import of Britain – Germany – Italy appears here (I strongly recommend not to mix it with other axes!) .

True, France, as the strongest nuclear power, traditionally distributes terawatt hours in all directions, except for 2022when more than half of their reactors were out of service (maybe we’re only now realizing how much this effect contributed to the energy crisis, eh?). This year, however, the call of the Gallic rooster is literally deafening. By simple extrapolation (how can something with such a solemn name be simple?) compared to 2023, it can be deduced that France is well on its way to conquering the magical threshold of 100 TWh in 2024.

Another colorful (and also round!) picture appears, everywhere this unique amount of electricity flows: in the net balance, the largest amount goes to Great Britain (14.9 TWh) and Italy (13.7 TWh), followed by Switzerland (9.2 TWh), then Germany (8.8 TWh) and Belgium (8.3 TWh). Spain is the only country with which France has a balance, or even a slightly passive balance, (-0.5 TWh).

Let’s review the list of the most valuable French customers one more time. They are a mix of countries that have decided to bet everything or almost everything on renewable energy sources, have moved quickly away from coal or want to move away from gas natural as soon as possible, and is not very successful in building new nuclear. capabilities.

The British they rely on wind, they don’t have time to replace coal with gas, and their nuclear is delayed, so their energy is set to reach the edge as early as 2028. Italians a long time ago they voluntarily scrapped the core, they are gradually phasing out coal voluntarily (don’t ask me to draw a parallel with Germany, they probably won’t even mocking it more) and for several years they have been searching for that gas and there is not enough water to cover consumption. Switzerland it does not really belong to the Friends of the Power-Deprived Club because it is in surplus, and the large importation from France must be read as a violent overflow into Italy and the Germany. About himself Germany so much has been written (also because of my contribution) that it is not worth saying again and again. It is left Belgiumand this is also a very interesting case – she was already on the best path to abandoning the heart, but then she changed her mind in the face of unfavorable results (she found building a power plant was a bit more difficult than shutting it down).

Back under the Arc de Triomphe. Our favorite speech energy mix analyzer power installed he speaks clearly. Electricity production is maintained by the core and everything else (water, gas, wind, sun) is just an accessory.

Yes, it was not glory in 2022, but it should be remembered that it was at this time that a significant part of the French nuclear power plants underwent much-needed maintenance (covid-suspension and reverse -support). The fact that most of them are currently in good condition is also shown by the graph of total production. This year the heart attacking a 70% share. on French electric gâteau.

But that’s not all. French electricity is not only very accessible, but also very clean and cheap. While Germany carbon intensity in electricity production about 400 gCO2/kWh, France around 50 (don’t make me write those units again…).

At the beginning of August, when renewable sources are expected to do well, this difference was several times higher.

Average spot prices in France are much lower than in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands or Italy, and at a level completely comparable to cheap (read: well-supplied cheap gas) in Spain.

So the conclusion is clear. Despite the challenges of decarbonisation, there is no need to build any new power plants in Europe. In the future, only France will produce electricity (which will produce the cleanest and cheapest anyway), so it will be enough if we all stretch the wires to it at the border and hope together for a few miracles more or less:

2) that decommissioned nuclear units with new capabilities will actually be possible in France

3) that despite the increase in cross-border traffic, French export prices will remain at a reasonable level (which is a common practice of monopolies)

4) there will always be enough cooling water in France to cool the reactors.