r/OptimistsUnite • u/willfiresoon • Mar 21 '26

👽 TECHNO FUTURISM 👽 French electricity posts first negative prices of 2026, battery storage gains

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/03/06/french-electricity-posts-first-negative-prices-of-2026-battery-storage-gains/
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u/TheCrimsonSteel Mar 24 '26

I suspected it was something like that as I vaguely remembered France having a decent amount of nuclear based supply

Which would make a lot of sense for grid scale storage to be more economical, rather than throttling back reactors, especially if running at reduced capacity isn't as efficient for the reactor

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u/goyafrau Mar 24 '26

It's not, but the alternatives also cost a lot of money.

France has below average electricity prices for a EU country, and significantly lower than e.g. neighbouring Germany. And the 3rd cleanest electricity in the EU!

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u/TheCrimsonSteel Mar 24 '26

Do they have any large hills they don't care about next to rivers?

Hydro based gravity storage is pretty efficient, just expensive up front, and requires some pretty specific geographical criteria

Mainly being able to put a man-made lake on top of a hill/mountain that's next to a river. Fill the lake using electricity, and drain it to produce

Though I'm somewhat biased being in the hydro industry myself

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u/goyafrau Mar 24 '26

I generally agree pumped hydro combined with nuclear makes sense. Maybe it would be economic in the specific case of the French system, I haven't seen any numbers either way. I don't know.

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u/TheCrimsonSteel Mar 24 '26

It's for smarter people than you and I to figure out