After communicating at the beginning of January on electricity exports, the network manager RTE published new data on electricity production in 2024 on January 20.
95% low-carbon electricity in 2024
After several years of “thwarted” production (corrosion under stress for nuclear units, drought affecting the hydraulic sector, etc.), electricity production in mainland France has reached 536.5 TWh in 2024its highest level over the last 5 years (close to the average annual level for the period 2014-2019), according to the latest RTE data.
This increase in production comes from all low-carbon sectors: nuclear power, which would have accounted for nearly 67.4% of the national mix in 2024 (with 361.7 TWh produced) but also hydroelectricity (which experienced its highest production level since 2013 with 74.7 TWh generated last year, or 13.9% of production in mainland France in 2024).
Followed by wind power (46.6 TWh, or 8.7%) and solar power (23.3 TWh, or 4.3%). Note that solar production for the first time exceeded the total production of electricity from fossil sources last year (19.9 TWh, with a drop of almost 40% in the production of gas power plants) .
Source: Key figures for French electricity production in 2024 RTE – Graph: Selectra
Thus, French low-carbon production has “ reached for the first time the threshold of 95% of electricity produced in France », Signals RTE. In total, the intensity of French electricity production, already one of the lowest in the world, has fallen by almost a third in 2024, amounting to only 21.3 g CO2 eq/kWh (with annual emissions from the sector amounting to 11.3 Mt CO2 eq).
-Net balance of electricity exports: + 89 TWh
As a reminder, RTE had already communicated at the beginning of January on the historic record for net electricity exports broken by France in 2024: + 89 TWh, compared to + 77 TWh for the previous record in 2002 (and + 50.1 TWh in 2023 ).
This record is naturally linked to the increases in production mentioned above but also to limited demand: “ French electricity consumption remains low, in the downward trend of the last 10 years under the effect of better energy efficiency of equipment, reinforced by the increase in prices and the sobriety actions implemented in 2022 and maintained since by the French ».
This low consumption contrasts with traditional forecasts of changes in demand: France's low-carbon strategy is in fact based on the electrification of uses, i.e. on an increase in electricity consumption.
RTE will communicate the final consumption data and restated for weather hazards for 2024 in its traditional annual report in February.
