As a blistering heatwave continues to grip continental Europe, France is facing an energy crisis of its own making. With nuclear plants forced to shut or reduce output due to low river levels, the nation is turning to imports from neighbours already struggling to keep grids stable. Meanwhile, Britain stands as a stark contrast: its diversified energy mix and interconnectors are weathering the thermal storm with remarkable composure.
France’s nuclear fleet, long the backbone of its low-carbon ambitions, is proving vulnerable. The Rhône and Garonne rivers, vital for cooling reactors, have run too warm. EDF has already curtailed output at several stations. In June, the company revised its annual nuclear production forecast downward for the seventh time, citing temperature restrictions. This is not a black swan event. It is a predictable failure of centralised, inflexible energy planning. The result: spot prices in France have soared, and the nation is burning more gas to compensate.
Across the Channel, the situation is different. National Grid has declared no supply emergencies. Britain’s reliance on gas is lower than in previous summers, thanks to record wind generation and robust solar capacity. The interconnectors to France and Belgium have been operating as safety valves, but crucially, domestic renewable output has covered demand even during the recent high-pressure system that brought heat and low wind. Our grid is less a monolith and more a mosaic, and that resilience is now quantified in stable prices and secure supply.
The contrast is embarrassing for the European Union. The bloc has championed a unified energy market, but the French crisis exposes the fragility of an approach that privileges nuclear over diversity. Germany, having phased out its reactors, is also struggling: lignite and coal have been brought back online to fill gaps left by French exports. The environmental cost is immediate. CO2 emissions in the EU rose 2% in June compared to last year, a reversal that climate models did not account for.
Britain left the EU, but our energy policy was always more pragmatic. We have embraced renewables without clinging to a single technology. We have kept gas as a backup, not a crutch. And we have invested in storage and demand-side response. This heatwave is a natural experiment. It shows that resilience lies not in grand plans but in options. France has spent decades perfecting one option. Now it is paying the price.
The lesson is clear: as the planet warms, energy systems must adapt. That means redundancy, decentralisation, and integration across technologies. It means accepting that no single source is invulnerable. The climate does not care about political ideology. It only responds to physics. And the physics of a 40°C day are brutal to reactors dependent on cool water.
Britain is not immune to heatwaves. Our houses are poorly insulated, our rails buckle. But on energy, we have got it right for now. The government should not be smug, it should accelerate. More offshore wind, more long-duration storage, more deployment of heat pumps to shift demand away from peak gas days. The trajectory is clear. Those who build flexibility today will be the survivors of tomorrow.
In France, the heatwave will pass. The nuclear plants will restart. But the underlying vulnerability remains. EDF is facing a crisis of confidence. The EU is grappling with a divided energy vision. Britain, for all its political turmoil, has stumbled upon a resilient model. It is not perfect. But today, that is praise worth pausing for.
The data is incontrovertible. France’s nuclear outages have reduced its clean power share to 65% from a historical 75%. Britain’s renewables have hit 48% for the first time over a two-week period. The numbers do not lie. The heatwave has exposed a gap in strategy that no amount of political rhetoric can close.
