The French annual record in terms of electricity exports is surprisingly good. This is what our columnist Maxence Cordiez, associate energy expert at the Montaigne Institute, shows. However, the energy crisis that the country is going through requires a real electrification policy.
2025 has arrived, and with it, the time to take stock of the past year. In terms of electricity exports, France has broken an absolute record, shattering the previous one which dates back to 2002 at 77 TWh. French net exports – that is to say the balance of exports from which imports are subtracted – amounted to 89.1 TWh in 2024. This is a little more than the consumption of a country like Belgium ( 81 TWh) or Finland (82 TWh).
These exports contribute to redressing the French trade balance, otherwise heavily in deficit, to the tune of around a hundred billion euros in 2023. Thus, in a normal year, net electricity exports bring in around 2 billion euros to France. This value rose to 4 billion in 2023 due to favorable market conditions and should be exceeded in 2024, even if the exact value is not yet known. Exports also contribute to European decarbonization given that France exports electricity that emits little greenhouse gas in production, thanks to nuclear, hydraulic, wind and photovoltaic solar energy.
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The composition of the French electricity mix also explains why exports are so high. The different power plants produce in the order of increasing variable costs, the variable costs being those which depend on production: mainly the purchase of fuel and CO emission rights2 for fossil fuel power plants. However, wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels and hydroelectric power stations have virtually zero variable costs.
What is expensive is to build these facilities, but once built, the additional cost associated with each MWh produced is almost zero. The same goes for nuclear power plants for which the bulk of the production cost is associated with the construction and financing of the construction of the reactors, the fuel only accounting for around ten percent of the production cost.
Energy crisis
Thus, the production capacities at low variable costs which constitute the bulk of the French production fleet produce in priority compared to fossil fuel power plants. And as long as the electrical interconnections linking France to its neighbors are not saturated and there is demand to satisfy in the rest of Europe which cannot be met by such capacities (still insufficient today) , France exports.
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Beyond the positive aspects, the scale of French electricity exports hides a reality that is more difficult to rejoice in, which is the destruction of demand following the energy crisis of 2021-2022. Some companies have closed down or reduced their production and are consuming less than before.
At the same time, the country is struggling to electrify its uses of energy – mobility, heating, industry, etc. – which is leading to stagnation in electricity demand, even though it should grow to achieve decarbonization objectives and wean itself off fuels. fossils. If electricity currently constitutes a quarter of the final French energy mix, the national low carbon strategy predicts that it will reach 55-60% in 2050 so that the country can do without fossil fuels.
Accelerate electrification
The surplus electricity exported by France constitutes a reserve which the country can use to reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels. Accelerating the electrification of energy uses should therefore be a political priority. Rather than importing oil and gas which costs France several tens of billions of euros while contributing to global warming, France would have everything to gain from capitalizing on its low-carbon electricity, produced in France and generating local jobs.
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A real electrification policy would help to improve the French trade balance, create sustainable jobs, secure the price of energy supplies by reducing exposure to international gas and oil markets, and reduce gas emissions. greenhouse effect. This is a political choice without regrets, but which requires a long-term vision on the part of public authorities. This also requires managing to create a certain coherence between the action of the different ministries. In particular so that the tax policy developed by the Ministry of the Budget does not go against the promotion of electrification by the Ministry of Energy.
