France regained its position as Europe’s leading exporter of electricity in 2023, well ahead of Sweden and Norway, thanks to an increase in the nuclear fleet in 2022 affected by a historic drop in production, according to data communicated on Wednesday (January 17) by analysis firm S&P Global Commodity Insights. .
With net electricity exports to its European neighbors of 50.1 terawatt hours in 2023, France regained its position as the leading exporter held by Sweden in 2022, according to figures released by the newspaper on Tuesday. the echo.
In 2023, Sweden and Norway, two countries regularly at the top of the ranking, achieved net exports of 28.6 terawatt hours and 17.3 terawatt hours, respectively, due to their abundant hydroelectric production. Spain, which relies on solar and wind power, is in fourth place with net exports of 13.9 terawatt hours.
records
In an unprecedented situation in 2022, after corrosion problems were discovered at several nuclear reactors in late 2021, France was a net importer of electricity for almost the entire year, which had not happened for forty-two years.
Since then, nuclear and hydroelectric electricity generation, dominated by the historic operator EDF, has recovered. With the restart of its reactors, EDF’s nuclear output rose to 320.4 terawatt hours in 2023, compared to 279 terawatt hours in 2022, a historically low level since 1988. In this context, France has registered a new record for the export of ‘electrons’.
France noted on January 3 “New Maximum Export Balance of 20.3 GW”Thus breaking the previous export records set in February 2019 (17.4 GW) and December 2023 (18.7 GW), the manager of the high voltage network RTE clarified in early January.
German exports decline
Germany, for its part, is seen as a net importer of 10 terawatt hours in 2023, the first time since 2002. The reasons given are varied.
For Emeric de Wigen, vice-president in charge of electricity markets at Kpler, this situation can be explained by the abandonment of its last three nuclear power plants in this country, which represent 6% of the electricity produced in Germany. “Its absence is enough to cause some tension as soon as the wind fails” In wind farms, he commented to Agence France-Presse.
For other experts, the decline in German electricity exports is primarily a question of price. Germany used to feed its neighbors cheap coal-fired electricity, which is now more expensive due to the high cost of CO.2.
