By relying on nuclear power, France reaches a record 95% of carbon-free electricity produced in 2024

France is returning to its level of electricity production before the Covid crisis, an increasingly carbon-free electricity.

This is the double positive effect of the announcement made by RTE, Monday January 20, the electricity transmission network, manager of the high-voltage network. The figure is precise and telling. France has crossed the threshold of 95% low-carbon electricity for the first time in 2024 thanks to nuclear and renewables such as wind and hydraulic power. In other words, almost all of the electricity produced on French soil. For detail lovers and electricians, this represents 536 TWh over the whole of 2024.

If we look at energy by energy, we see that nuclear power remains by far the leading source of electricity production with a share of 67%. The share of renewables (wind, hydraulic with dams, solar and biomass) accounts for nearly 28% of the French electricity production mix.

In Germany, the most emblematic country because nuclear power will disappear in 2024, the share of electricity production solely from renewables does not reach 60% (59% precisely). In the United Kingdom, which closed its last coal-fired power station in September, the low-carbon share of electricity reached 58% in 2024, of which only 13% was nuclear. Fossil energy is declining everywhere, but there is still a way to go.

France has never produced so little energy based on coal, fuel oil or gas. The level recorded in 2024 is the lowest since 1950. France plans to abandon its coal-fired power plants in 2027… The trajectory is therefore tenable. There remains the objective recalled by one of RTE's executives, Thomas Veyrenc: to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050. To achieve this, we must succeed in completely electrifying our production tool in a clean manner, which itself still depends on 60% fossil fuels (for factories, cars and housing).