EDF chief says German consumers subsidise French power users

[FBaggins]

"The weight of German subsidies for renewables, and coal, is such that the German end consumer pays, via his green taxes, a subsidy to the French consumer," he said. "It is a transfer between the two countries," he added.

Levy said that, on balance, France exports a lot more power than it imports from Germany, and that France's positive power export balance grows every year. He said France had a balance of payments surplus of about 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) from power exports and added that this corresponds to 8-9 percent of EDF's power production.

France's power trade balance can be monitored live on grid operator RTE's "Eco2mix" smartphone app. Around midday, France imported 1.2 gigawatt from Germany (the equivalent of a nuclear plant) while it exported 10.3 GW to other neighbouring countries, of which 3.1 GW to Italy and 2.9 GW to Switzerland.

Germany's 188-gigawatt installed capacity, including 83 GW of renewables, is more than double its average peak demand of about 90 GW, while in summer demand can fall as low as 50 GW. When Germany's renewable assets turn at full capacity, German power floods the grids of neighbouring countries.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/14/edf-france-germany-idUSL6N0UT2F720150114