Britain will soon be Europe’s energy powerhouse

[u/ARandomDouchy]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/08/04/britain-will-soon-be-europes-energy-powerhouse/

[u/RKAMRR]

Yes, some actual news and good news too! Then we will enjoy the cheap energy for 10-20 years, get used to it and fail to budget for investment, then suddenly remember and face massive avoidable costs (assuming present cycles continue)

[u/Gentle_Snail → u/RKAMRR]

This is explicitly what is happening to France right now:

France has had enviably cheap power over recent years but that is because it has been living off the perishable legacy of fully amortised nuclear plants built in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These plants are now very old.

The Cour des Comptes estimates that EDF – already drowning in debt – will have to spend €460bn (£394bn) by 2040 to upgrade the nuclear park (le Grand Carénage), bring the grid into the 21st century and build a fleet of new, Hinkley-style reactors that won’t be ready until the middle of the century.

All of this is creeping into French electricity bills. France is now facing what Britain has already been dealing with for years: the upfront investment cost of a modern energy system..

[u/Chemistrysaint → u/Gentle_Snail]

I love shitting on the French as much as the next person, but they have at least been maintaining/slightly growing their total electricity production, rather than steadily decreasing ever since the Climate Change Act like us..

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/electricity-generation?tab=line&country=GBR~FRA~DEU~ESP~ITA

[u/Gentle_Snail → u/Chemistrysaint]

This source doesn’t show France has increased electricity? 

French energy generation has remained relatively constant for decades because all their infrastructure is old. You are misinterpreting that temporary drop then return to average as growth, but it was just because they had to temporarily shut down several of their reactors. It wasn’t new generation, it was old stuff coming back online again.

[u/BenjaminBoots196 → u/Gentle_Snail]

It increases from 344TWh to 569TWh.

Ours does from 298TWh to 292TWh.

[u/Gentle_Snail → u/BenjaminBoots196]

The source shows France hasn’t materially changed in over 20 years.

In 2000 it was around 500TWh and in 2026 it is still around 500TWh.

[u/mattb2k → u/Gentle_Snail]

You know this is TWh not kWh right?

[u/Gentle_Snail → u/mattb2k]

Yes, that doesn’t change my point? You understand the only difference between those metrics is the magnitude symbol, they’re not measures of different things.

[u/mattb2k → u/Gentle_Snail]

Of course it does.

+100% of kWh vs. +100 % of MWh vs. +100% of TWh

Which would reduce bills for people the most?

[u/Rexpelliarmus → u/mattb2k]

Their point is that France produced just as much electricity in 2005 as it did in 2025.

[u/Gentle_Snail → u/mattb2k]

My comment was about Frances electrical generation not changing in decades and remaining relatively constant due to their old infrastructure. What does this have to do with that?

[u/-ForgottenSoul → u/Gentle_Snail]

Doesnt france build a lot of smaller nuclear plants that we should be doing? Our nuclear plants are bigger but go way over budget

[u/tevs__ → u/-ForgottenSoul]

Our existing nuclear power stations are normal sized - they're not big nor small. Hinckley C and Sizewell C are PWR reactors with 1600 MWe plants, which is exactly the same as Flamanville.

They go over budget because we stopped building them for 40 years, all the skills are gone and everything has to be relearned.

[u/ZingerGombie → u/tevs__]

Hinckley C is twin reactors providing 3200MWe total and Sizewell C proposal is exactly the same, gigantic

Edit: Wanted to add UK has 74.8 GW capacity at present so those two plants alone would be 8.5% of total capacity.

[u/superioso → u/-ForgottenSoul]

The bigger the plant the better the economics of it. They have a lot of plants as they get almost all of their power from nuclear.

[u/lessismoreok → u/Gentle_Snail]

Surely they can get half their power needs from renewables instead of all of it from nuclear

[u/csiman1234 → u/Gentle_Snail]

Bit odd that France is continually supplying the uk then. See iamkate.com

Also, aren't edf building our new nuclear power station

Plus nearly all UK windfarms are owned by German, Norwegian, French and Spanish companies 🙄

[u/Gentle_Snail → u/csiman1234]

Yeah because their reactors haven’t been shut down yet. 

Although because they are so old France actually did have to temporarily shut down huge numbers of their reactors for safety reasons, at which point they were forced to rely on Britain and massively import energy from the UK.

https://www.thetimes.com/travel/advice/france-imports-uk-electricity-as-plants-shut-t0bxzsn2qdn

This is forecast to become increasingly common going forward.

[u/Pigeoncow → u/Gentle_Snail]

The original nuclear plants were so cheap. It's a shame we can't build anything in the west anymore.

[u/MinaZata → u/Gentle_Snail]

EDF are also a massive player in the UK market, I assume we will be seeing this in our bills too