95% of the electricity produced in France is low carbon, a record for the country. This is an increase of 8.45% compared to 2023.
France returned to electricity production close to its pre-Covid levels in 2024, thanks to the “rapid recovery” of nuclear power and “record” renewable production, network manager RTE announced on Monday. The country was thus able to cross the threshold of 95% of electricity produced from low carbon sources for the first time.
“With 536.5 TWh, [la] electricity production [de la France] reached its highest level in 5 years. It thus returns to a level identical to that of 2019, in line with the 2014-2019 average (537.5 TWh)”, detailed the manager of the high voltage network.
Nearly 70% of energy produced by nuclear power
This increase of 8.45% compared to 2023 results from several factors: “the rapid recovery” of nuclear power (361.7 TWh)”, after a level in 2022 at the lowest in 30 years (279 TWh), due to corrosion problems in the nuclear fleet, and a gradual recovery in 2023; “exceptional hydraulic production”, at the highest since 2013 (74.7 TWh) and “sustained growth of the production of the wind and solar sectors (70 TWh in 2024, against 46 TWh in 2019)”.
-Nuclear remains the leading source of electricity production, with a share of 67.41%, far ahead of renewables (wind, solar, dams, biomass). But this renewable production “reached a record of 148 TWh, or 27.6% of total production”, underlined RTE. Around a third came from wind power (46.6 TWh). According to RTE, production in fossil power plants (gas, coal, fuel oil) experienced, in 2024, “its lowest level since the beginning of the 1950s (19.9 TWh)”, representing “for the first time”, a cumulative level lower than solar production (23.3 TWh).
Far ahead of Germany and the United Kingdom
Little used, gas power plants produced 17.4 TWh in 2024 compared to 29.2 TWh in 2023, and “the production of coal (0.7 TWh) and fuel oil (1.8 TWh) power plants remained low” , details RTE. Building on its nuclear power and the growth of renewables, low-carbon production has thus “reached for the first time the threshold of 95% of electricity produced in France”, compared to 92.2% in 2023.
In Germany, the share of renewable energies has broken a new record in its electricity production, reaching 59% in 2024, the first year in which nuclear power has disappeared from its production mix. In the United Kingdom, which has turned the page on coal, the share of low-carbon electricity production has reached a record 58%, including 45% from renewables and 13% from nuclear, according to a Carbon Brief study.
