France reclaims title as Europe's biggest exporter of electricity
France regained its place as the leading exporter of electricity in Europe in 2023 – far ahead of Sweden and Norway – thanks to its nuclear strategy. Maintenance problems in 2022 saw a historic drop in production, with France importing electricity for the first time in more than 40 years.
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With 50.1 terawatt hours (TWh) of net electricity exports in 2023 to its European neighbors, France has regained its place as the leading exporter – held by Sweden in 2022.
This is according to data from the analysis firm S&P Global Commodity Insights, published by the newspaper Les Echos.
In 2023 Sweden and Norway, two countries regularly at the top of the ranking thanks to their abundant hydroelectric production, achieved 28.6TWh and 17.3TWh of net exports respectively.
Spain, which relies on solar and wind energy, is fourth with 13.9TWh of net exports.
Due to corrosion problems detected on several nuclear reactors at the end of 2021, France was forced to import electricity for almost all of 2022, which had not happened for 42 years.
With the restart of the reactors, national energy operator EDF's nuclear production increased to 320.4TWh in 2023, compared to 279TWh in 2022, a historically low level since 1988.
Germany imports
In total, European neighbors like Germany were able to benefit "more easily and at lower cost" from France's excess supply, Glenn Rickson, electricity analyst at S&P Global Commodity Insights, told French news agency AFP.
Germany imported 10 TWhin 2023, a first since 2002.
This situation can be explained by the abandonment of the last three nuclear power plants in Germany, even if they represented only 6 percent of the electricity produced in the country.
Their absence is enough to create some tensions as soon as the wind fails in wind farms, Emeric de Vigan, vice-president in charge of electricity markets at Kpler told AFP.
For other experts, the decline in German electricity exports is mainly a question of price: Germany used to flood its neighbors with cheap coal-generated electricity, electricity which is now more expensive in due to higher CO2 pricing.
"We expect Germany to maintain its position as an importer in the near future, particularly as a number of coal and lignite plants are scheduled to close in 2024," Rickson said.
Europe's energy mix
France's fleet of 56 nuclear reactors – which supply the country with 70 percent of its electricity – received a boost after the EU's member states recently agreed that atomic power should be part of the bloc's energy mix going forward.
Its inclusion in a reform of the EU's energy market, which is shifting from fossil fuel dependency to a greener, more renewable one, underlined both Paris's lobbying efforts and urgency over energy security sparked by Russia's war in Ukraine.
In December, France signed a nuclear cooperation memorandum with Sweden. Stockholm, like Paris, is banking on using nuclear power to meet its climate goals.
The memorandum "will let us tighten our links on the issue of nuclear power," France's now former energy minister, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, said after signing the document with her Swedish counterpart, Ebba Busch.
Germany responded to this gesture by saying that renewable energy sources should be prioritised instead.
Germany's minister for economic affairs and climate action, Sven Giegold said in December that "we need very flexible and supplemental resources, and that means that so far nuclear technology is not ready to deliver that".
He also expressed concerns about nuclear sectors in France and other countries benefiting from state subsidies whereas Germany is facing a spending squeeze because of a court decision crimping its budget.
"This needs to be controlled to avoid negative fallout" for the EU single market, Giegold said.
(with AFP)
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