this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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The linked video of Real Engineering has some major factual errors and omissions. I made a comment where I mentioned some in a neutral tone together with sources. He deleted it, which does not leave a good impression on me.
Here some examples:
The COβ per kWh is given as 42 for France. It should be around 100. The number Real Engineering uses is likely from RTE France, however they estimate as follows "For energy sources that are not mentioned [including nuclear], their contribution to CO2 emissions is considered equal to 0 t CO2 eq / MWh". But there are significant COβ Emissions from Nuclear which are generated by the high amount of building materials needed for safety and operational costs. Currently estimated to be around 66g COβ per kWh .
It is mentioned that Germany imports energy from France, leaving the impression this is a one way dependency because Germany shut down its nuclear power. In reality the grid is interconnected and energy is constantly moved across borders in both directions. In fact if you look at the numbers France actually imports more from Germany then it exports to it!
Due to the heat in the recent summers and due to necessary repairs on faulty reactors France has switched from being energy exporter to energy importer.
Hasn't France gone back to being a net exporter since winter 2022?
Yes this seems to be true for now. However keep in mind, that the hot months are just beginning and have a high impact on the energy production of France.
Here are charts I found. They are a bit difficult to read: Basically the width of the connection on a country determines the amount of energy they sent over the connection. So the connection from France to Switzerland which is much broader on the FR side says France exports more than it imports from Switzerland. For Spains the reverse is true as the connection is broader on the ES side.
To see the impact of hot months compare the charts for May and July-September of last year.
I think France will in average stay a net exporter for the next years, but in the trend they will shift to more importing as many of their nuclear reactors need maintenance or replacement and all of them are affected by climate change. The trend may of course change again due to changes in politics.
Not really
~~That is true.~~ [Γdith: apparently not!β½]
However, import/export stats usually just show where energy is cheapest. Of course it's cheaper to use French excess nuclear energy than start a German gas/coal plant. Germany has more than enough (fossil) capacity on its own, however.
The 2022 situation in France is an outlier in this regard obviously, because it temporarily reduced French generation capacity below their needs. Also outliers: Countries like Italy and Hungary that never had enough generation capacity in the first place and do need to import rather than importing to reduce cost.