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France doesn't have the cheapest power in Europe. Even for non-households, they are beaten by a large margin by the likes of Denmark - where wind is the bigges

by derriz 5y ago

France doesn't have the cheapest power in Europe. Even for non-households, they are beaten by a large margin by the likes of Denmark - where wind is the biggest source of generation. And household consumers pay pretty much the average European price for electricity. [1] If you want to look at France, google the most recent French attempt to add nuclear capacity - Flamanville 3. It's 15 years late and nearly 6 times over budget and still not operational. [1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Electricity_price_statistics https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...

roenxi 5y ago
Curious. Denmark has either the 2nd highest or the 4th lowest power prices in Europe depending on whether we're talking about household or non-household users. There must be something strange going on there beyond just having wind power, that is a huge divergence. Driven mainly by taxes I see.
- derriz 5y ago
  edit: Sorry - I missed your last sentence on first reading - so yes it's taxes. Danmark is a huge outlier in terms of how much it taxes household electricity consumption. Including VAT, nearly 70% of a Danish household electricity is tax. Non-households are taxed much more lightly. This is a policy decision I guess to encourage more efficient utilisation. But the actual wholesale cost of electricity in Denmark is very low because of their use of cheap wind power. I don't have anything more up-to-date than this[1] which is for 2019 but the second page shows a bar graph where the level of tax on household electricity is shown. [1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/10826603/8-07052020-AP-EN.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/10826603/8-0...
natmaka 5y ago
Indeed. This 'success story' led to a state law (2015-992, from 2015, the "loi relative à la transition énergétique pour la croissance verte") stating that the part of nuke-produced electricity must fall to less than 50% in 2025, from 72% then, and that renewables must replace it. In France nuke-power is backed by gas (which produced 10.3% of gridpower in 2017). Aging reactors more and more become a threat: https://www.liberation.fr/futurs/2016/03/03/il-faut-imaginer-qu-un-accident-de-type-fukushima-puisse-survenir-en-europe_1437315 https://www.liberation.fr/futurs/2016/03/03/il-faut-imaginer...

by derriz 5y ago

roenxi 5y ago

Curious. Denmark has either the 2nd highest or the 4th lowest power prices in Europe depending on whether we're talking about household or non-household users. There must be something strange going on there beyond just having wind power, that is a huge divergence. Driven mainly by taxes I see.

derriz 5y ago
edit: Sorry - I missed your last sentence on first reading - so yes it's taxes. Danmark is a huge outlier in terms of how much it taxes household electricity consumption. Including VAT, nearly 70% of a Danish household electricity is tax. Non-households are taxed much more lightly. This is a policy decision I guess to encourage more efficient utilisation. But the actual wholesale cost of electricity in Denmark is very low because of their use of cheap wind power. I don't have anything more up-to-date than this[1] which is for 2019 but the second page shows a bar graph where the level of tax on household electricity is shown. [1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/10826603/8-07052020-AP-EN.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/10826603/8-0...

natmaka 5y ago

Indeed. This 'success story' led to a state law (2015-992, from 2015, the "loi relative à la transition énergétique pour la croissance verte") stating that the part of nuke-produced electricity must fall to less than 50% in 2025, from 72% then, and that renewables must replace it. In France nuke-power is backed by gas (which produced 10.3% of gridpower in 2017). Aging reactors more and more become a threat: https://www.liberation.fr/futurs/2016/03/03/il-faut-imaginer-qu-un-accident-de-type-fukushima-puisse-survenir-en-europe_1437315 https://www.liberation.fr/futurs/2016/03/03/il-faut-imaginer...