> France: 17 cent per kwh vs Germany: 29 cent per kwh You can't really compare that. The 17 cent are not real prices in a competitive market. In France electri

> France: 17 cent per kwh vs Germany: 29 cent per kwh You can't really compare that. The 17 cent are not real prices in a competitive market. In France electricity production is mostly monopolistic & state owned - some kind of deregulation start last year. ;-) EDF is state owned. Increasing the electricity price to cover real costs is not an option, the population will vote against it. Guess who pays for keeping the old reactor fleet alive? Costs for maintenance are rising to an estimated 45 billion Euros in 2025. Guess who pays for the super-expensive new reactors like the EPR? Without government money the company which builds it would have been imploded long ago. Germany OTOH makes electricity expensive: there are taxes, investments in renewable energy, investments in decentralized grid, research, etc.. This also keeps consumption low and creates incentives to invest in new and efficient infrastructure and electricity consuming devices.