Alicia Aloisi, Futura website writes on the Futura website that France has hit a milestone. For the first time in years, the country is generating more electricity than it uses. In 2024, production soared, exports reached record highs, and nearly all of France’s power supply became decarbonised. It’s a remarkable turnaround — but one that must be managed wisely, or this newfound surplus could become a problem.
France now produces more electricity than it uses—marking a major energy shift
For much of the past decade, France’s electricity output lagged behind demand. The decline began around 2015 with reduced nuclear output, then worsened as the Covid-19 pandemic delayed crucial maintenance and infrastructure projects. But by 2024, the situation had reversed. Nuclear generation rebounded to pre-crisis levels, and renewable energy installations — mainly solar and wind — added another 7 gigawatts. Today, France’s power grid is 95% carbon-free, and exports have hit a record 89 terawatt-hours.
The costly weight of fossil fuels
Despite this progress, France still imports nearly 60% of the energy it consumes, costing between €50 and €70 billion a year, according to RTE, the national electricity network operator. The main culprit remains fossil fuels, which still make up about 60% of final energy use.
France’s climate strategy aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2035, which means reducing that fossil fuel share to around 30%. The government’s two big levers: energy efficiency and broad electrification.
Between 2017 and 2023, energy-saving measures and efficiency improvements paid off. Rising electricity prices also encouraged consumers to use less power, leading to an annual savings of about 30 terawatt-hours.
An energy surplus with new potential
The result? France now has more electricity than it needs. “France is in a strong position to accelerate its electrification,” RTE wrote in its 2025–2035 outlook.
As part of a rapid decarbonization plan, RTE projects new demand will come from electric vehicles — adding about 17 TWh per year by 2030 — as well as the growth of green hydrogen production through electrolysis (+15 TWh) and the electrification of industrial processes (+13 TWh).
This overcapacity gives France a rare advantage: it no longer needs to choose between technological growth and environmental protection. In the coming years, expanding digital infrastructure — particularly data centers — will increase energy consumption. RTE predicts their electricity use will triple between 2025 and 2030, from 5 to 15 TWh.
If France maintains this trajectory, the payoff could be both ecological and economic. RTE estimates that rapid decarbonization could drive GDP growth of 1.1% annually — a figure that’s giving economists and environmentalists alike a reason to smile.
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Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 
Currently space heating using resistance heating account for about 6% of
final energy consumption (2023) for the residential and commercial
sector (= 75TWh). This could all be ported over to heat pumps with no
change to power networks (because +/- the HPs will use one third of the
elec of the resistance heating). Thus demand moves from 75TWh to 25TWH –
freeing up circa 50TWH. Begs the question why this is not happening at
speed. If you then add the new demands EV+H2+Data centres = still less
than the 50TWh saved by moving to HPs. Which in turn means exports of
nuke elec (a good thing in my view) is largely unaffected. One
“fly-in-the-ointment” is what happens in very hot summers when the nukes
need to switch off (mostly Rhone)? Data soruce: mostly Eurostat sankey.