France: important decrease of the energy consumption in 2009

In 2009 the final consumption of energy dropped in any sector: -9.7% in industry, -3.1% in agriculture, -1.1% in transport. The decrease is around -3.1% on the whole. The production of nuclear power decreased sharply by -7% to reach 410 TWh which inferred a cut by half of the power exports. Technical problems and disturbances in the maintenance programs of nuclear power plants explain this decrease. On the contrary the production of renewable energies soared by 16% despite a drop of -9.5% in hydro-energy production. Wind and photovoltaic energies grew by 23% and now the global power of installed wind turbines is over 4500 MW. Now each year the equivalent of the power output of a nuclear plant (1000 MW) is installed in wind turbines in France. As for photovoltaic energy 45000 installations are now connected to the grid which represented 310 MW at the end of 2009. (A.C.)