[shakow]

They are a net exporter because they have to sell their wind/solar power for cheap when they have too much of it, but are then forced to buy nuclear/hydro power from their neighbors when their coal power plants are not enough to compensate the ramp-up in demand and/or the lack of wind/sun.

France could be electrically self-sufficient, Germany couldn't -- whether they would depend on FR/BE/NL/... being irrelevant.

[Retric]

France exports a lot of nuclear power on nights and weekends while importing power during peak demand. Their actually further from self sufficiency.

It gets more complicated on a euro per kWh basis as Frances nuclear is much more expensive so economically their losing money even if it looks better in terms of cash flows.

[shakow]

France is now close to its daily subpeak (https://www.rte-france.com/en/eco2mix/electricity-consumptio...) and exports (https://www.electricitymap.org/zone/FR) 11.5GW while importing 1GW, i.e. a surplus of >10GW, with over 50GW to spare in hydro and nuclear alone. The worst peak being at around 80GW during the winter, they should do good should they be independent at some point for whatever reason.

[Retric]

Self sufficiency is really about the delta between demand and available supply. It’s the worse case not average that’s the issue so you normally need to look at the coldest and hottest days not September which is when a lot of production is taken offline because demand is so low. Even that’s not the full picture individual power plants may be taken offline for a wide range of reasons.

That said, self sufficiency is expensive and generally not worth the costs involved.

[shakow]

> It’s the worse case not average that’s the issue so you normally need to look at the coldest and hottest days not September

Indeed, which is why I wrote “The worst peak being at around 80GW during the winter [...]”.

[jhgb]

> France could be electrically self-sufficient, Germany couldn't

According to what arbitrary criterion?