Chart of the Month Vol. 10 | In a nutshell: Nuclear Power in Europe

In this 10th Edition, HAEE’s Chart of the Month analyzes “In a nutshell: Nuclear power in Europe”.

Nuclear power can play a prominent role to cover the baseload demand and thus, substitute fossil-based energy technologies. In Europe, 171 nuclear power plants are in operation summing up to an installed capacity of approximately 155 GW.

In 2022, electricity generation from nuclear power plants presents strong fluctuations in many countries of Europe compared to the historical trends. Among the leading countries, France and Germany present the highest drop in nuclear contribution to the electricity mix between 2022 and 2021. In both countries, the share of nuclear generation to the electricity mix was reduced by more than 6% while in power units this can be translated in 69,3 TWh reduction for France and 107,7 TWh reduction for Germany respectively. In terms of emerging nuclear electricity producers, Spain presents the highest momentum of nuclear energy with increased power generation by approx. 73,9 TWh while in Switzerland nuclear energy increased its share by more than 9% in the national electricity mix between the years 2022 and 2021.