The (French) government is preparing to publish a key energy roadmap, aiming for 60% electricity consumption by 2030, with six new nuclear reactors and a mix of renewable energies.
After months of political deadlock in France over the budget, the government is preparing to move forward on one of its most sensitive policy areas: energy.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has confirmed that he will sign, “by the end of next week”, the decree publishing France’s long-awaited multi-year energy programme (PPE), which sets out the country’s energy roadmap through 2035.
In an interview with Ouest-France, Lecornu said the decision was driven by “urgency”, noting that the plan had been delayed for nearly three years due to deep political divisions over the balance between nuclear power and renewable energy.
At the heart of the strategy is a major objective: raising electricity’s share of France’s total energy consumption to 60% by 2030, up from around 30% today.
“Decarbonising the country requires reviving electricity production,” Lecornu said, underscoring the scale of the shift.
Fossil fuels still dominate key sectors such as transport and heavy industry in France. Electricity demand has also grown more slowly than expected, complicating efforts to cut emissions.
To address this, the government plans to accompany the PPE with a “major plan to electrify energy use”, targeting transport, buildings and industry.
Lecornu said incentives would be needed “to speed things up” to ensure that “60% of our energy consumption in 2030 is electric”.
Lecornu confirmed that six new EPR nuclear reactors will be included in the energy programme, with eight additional reactors listed as an option, in line with President Emmanuel Macron’s 2022 commitments.
Nuclear power will therefore remain a cornerstone of France’s energy strategy. But the prime minister has repeatedly rejected framing the debate as nuclear versus renewables.
“Pitting nuclear against renewables is a dead end,” he said. “The real battle is to get out of carbon and reduce our dependence on imports.”
That said, the government acknowledges that the slower-than-expected electrification of the economy may lead to reduced targets for onshore wind and solar power in the coming years, a prospect that has raised concerns within the renewable energy sector.
Renewable energy unions were invited to talks at the prime minister’s office ahead of the publication of the plan last Friday and emerged broadly reassured.
The meeting confirmed that there would be “no moratorium on renewable energy”, a clarification the sector had been seeking amid fears of a sudden slowdown.
There will indeed be calls for tenders to develop solar and wind power,” said Jules Nyssen, head of the French Renewable Energy Association (SER).
He stressed that renewables are essential to cutting CO₂ emissions and strengthening France’s energy independence.
However, Nyssen warned that the government’s preference for upgrading existing onshore wind farms, rather than building many new ones, “will not be enough to meet targets”.
Lecornu has said the state will continue investing in offshore wind, solar power and geothermal energy, as well as onshore wind.
But because onshore wind “sometimes causes local tensions,” the priority will be to replace older turbines with more powerful ones, in order to avoid what he described as landscape fragmentation.
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Generally regarded as being the world’s best example of a nuclear powered economy, France’s nuclear program has not been without challenges.
France has the largest number of nuclear reactors in Europe, 56 in total, priding itself on being more or less autonomous when it comes to electricity production, with around 70-75% coming from nuclear and all run by state-owned EDF.
But this year, nearly half of the country’s ageing nuclear fleet had to be shut down due to corrosion, summer heat waves or postponed maintenance, dramatically reducing electrical output.
In a matter of months, France went from being Europe’s largest electricity exporter, to importing more than it was sending out.
Speaking to Euronews, EDF director Jean-Marie Boursier, defended the need to import, as well as export.
“There are times during the day when we export electricity and then there are times during the day when we are importing it since you know that electricity cannot be stored,” Boursier said.
“And there must always be a balance between production and consumption and therefore depending on the time of day. Occasionally, we are exporters of electricity to Germany and other countries and occasionally we are importers. So, you have to balance.”
He added that his company was working as hard as possible to restart all its reactors.
“We are indeed doing our best to restore the full power of our reactors,” the EDF director said. “All my colleagues on the other sites are working hard every day, so that these reactors can return to production.
“We have shutdowns for maintenance that are scheduled throughout the year and we had to face, like the whole planet, the pandemic.
“This meant that we had to postpone a certain number of [maintenance] stops during the COVID period, which meant that we took off stops for maintenance. And then we also have a few reactors that have been shut down for corrosion policies.”