What's interesting is that they are now a net importer of electricity, but not much. But it's straining the European markets in an incredible way the whole year. My guess, and totally not backed by evidence, is that a lot of countries like Italy etc. were extremely reliant on French electricity, and that they were basically using France subsidizing their nuclear plants and enjoying the deal, not needing to actually take care of their needs themselves. And now it's not there anymore.
What's bad for France here is that nuclear plants basically need to run all the time to be even remotely economical - I read recently the EdF is losing billions and billions this year. Personally I think the situation is a lot worse then what they're admitting. They keep saying all year everything is fine, but then miss deadlines. The futures market was already going really high earlier in the year, but it affected the surrounding countries as well. Recently though it exploded in France only after they again pushed some deadlines back. Even Macron came out recently and said they need to remove roadblocks for renewables and be faster to give permits, which was a pretty big change in rhetoric compared to the usual "we'll build new nuclear plants".
I think the next years are going to be renewables heavy in all of Europe, and people will be surprised how quickly things will change.
What's bad for France here is that nuclear plants basically need to run all the time to be even remotely economical - I read recently the EdF is losing billions and billions this year. Personally I think the situation is a lot worse then what they're admitting. They keep saying all year everything is fine, but then miss deadlines. The futures market was already going really high earlier in the year, but it affected the surrounding countries as well. Recently though it exploded in France only after they again pushed some deadlines back. Even Macron came out recently and said they need to remove roadblocks for renewables and be faster to give permits, which was a pretty big change in rhetoric compared to the usual "we'll build new nuclear plants".
I think the next years are going to be renewables heavy in all of Europe, and people will be surprised how quickly things will change.