Strong and weak points of the french energy sector

Strong and weak points of the French energy sector

BILAN PG 113: Discuss the strong and weak points, illustrated by sections A, B and C, in the French energy sector.

France has become a resource poor country. The French’s gas and oil have almost run out, wood is no longer a sustainable disposition and hydroelectric power has been used for a long period. Dispositions had to be taken to meet the needs of the highly energy consuming French population in a sustainable way. The energy mix is used to measure the independence of a country towards energy. It shows the distribution of the different energy sources consumed within the concerned country: the more it consumes and exports its own energy and the less it relies on the imports of other countries, the more energy independent it is. However, what are the strong and weak points of the French energy sector? To answer this question, we are first going to look at the positive aspects of the French energy sector, then we are going to look at the negative ones.

Positively, France’s energy mix is diverse and there is a lot of options possible to respond to the population’s needs. Indeed, they produce all their nuclear power (132 MTOE), renewable thermal energy (17 MTOE) and almost all their electricity of (118 MTOE, to 1 MTOE close) and export the remaining nuclear energy (41 MTOE) and electricity (5 MTOE) that they did not consume, meaning that they are fully independent when it comes to these powers. The French also refines and exports 22 MTOE worth of oil. Evidently, the country runs mainly with nuclear power (41.0% of the energy mix) which is due to the Arab-Israeli war, in 1973, which generated the prices of oil to increase by four. This made France realise its vulnerability towards their oil suppliers (they fully relied on their oil providers) as, at this time, oil represented two thirds of the country’s energy needs. Therefore, the French government decided to reduce the cost of their energy imports and its reliance on other countries. Consequently, in 1974, France decided to develop a nuclear program allowing them to increase their independence towards energy, have cheaper electricity but also highly decrease their CO 2 emission. Nuclear plants are well distributed in France. Many towns and regions, such as Chinon or Gravelines, possess nuclear centres that hold three to four reactors of 900 Megawatts each. Other regions like Paluel or Golfech hold nuclear centres with three to two reactors of 1,300 Megawatts each and finally, Civaux and Chooz have nuclear plants with two reactors of 1,450 Megawatts each. All those nuclear plants are well scattered around the French territory except for a small region on the North West of France and the mountainous regions of the country like the Massif Central or the Alpes (due to the mountainous landscape of these regions that are not adequate to holding a nuclear plant). Moreover, 9.5% of France’s energy mix is renewable energy especially consisted of bioenergy (4.9%) but also hydro power. Indeed, France not only has a good dividing of the Hydro Electro Power (HEP) throughout the territory but also has used its mountainous landscape (Massif Central, Alpes…) for hydroelectricity mounting and arranged important water streams (Dordogne, Rhone…) to promote the production of hydroelectricity. The Alpes produces the most HEP (30.6%) of all the other regions (East and Mediterranean: 21%; Centre: 15.9% and South East: 11.5%) but also possesses the most power plants (nuclear and thermal) making it the biggest electricity-producing region of the whole country. Furthermore, on the positive side, France is in the process of developing solar farms such as the one in Lorraine called Toul-Rosieres which is equipped with nearly 1.4 million solar panels expanded on 360 hectares (largest solar panel farm of Europe in 2014). Plus, the farm possesses specially built solar panels that do not require much direct sunlight for it to transform it into electricity. This is important as, usually, light and power come from toxic fossil fuels that create greenhouse gases such as CO2 and, as solar panels make use of the Sun which is a zero emission energy source, it provides electricity without producing sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, CO2 and other toxic gases that affect not only the environment but the health of those living in the area as well. Also, it is a natural resource that is renewable and does not run out. Further, the solar panel farms enable France from being fully reliant on other countries to be provided fossil fuels to produce energy: it boosts the country’s economy and makes it less vulnerable towards the countries that provide the French with fossil fuels. This is already showing results with the electric production of the solar farm of Meurthe-et-Mosellane which allows to cover the needs of about 55 000 people while avoiding the emission of about 4 600 tonnes of CO2 per year. Furthermore, this solar power station allowed the use but also the decontamination of an old former military air base. On a last note, a smart way of housing is being developed for houses to be built in a way that allows it to function using the least energy possible. These houses generally have a high capacity of insulation to get more control over the temperature inside the house but also to avoid wasting. A very common system used in France is the ground-coupled heat exchanger (known as the ‘puits canadien’ in French). It is a heat exchanger built underground that can capture heat but also dissipate heat to the ground, these earth tubes are an economical alternative to central heating or air conditioning systems as they use the Earth's temperature to warm or cool air but also water, for instance. It can also be as simple as being built orientated in a particular way with the openings towards the south in order to receive the most sunlight to produce energy and less openings facing north against the cold. Inevitably, housing is the largest consumer of energy in France as it represents one third of the country’s entire energy consumption. It is, consequently, crucial for the country to build houses in a manner that reduces the energy uptake but also engenders less pollution and saves money in the long term as France, thus, doesn’t have to invest in fossil fuel energy imports as much. In a nutshell, in terms of power France has a variety to respond to the different sectors’ needs: they are fully independent towards their nuclear power that they mainly use since they realised how vulnerable it made them to rely on other countries to get their supplies of energy, renewable thermal energy and electricity as they produce these but also manage to export the remaining they did not consume. The French hold many nuclear plants and hydro electro power infrastructures that are well distributed arround the territory and is getting more and more closer towards less polluting and a more economical power production like the use of solar panels or low-energy houses for instance.

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