Paradox of the French-style energy transition: in 2024, the country broke its record for net electricity exports with 89 TWh sold to its neighbours, boosted by a spectacular recovery in nuclear power, exceptional hydroelectric production and a sharp rise in solar power.
However, in the spring of 2025, France will find itself having to pay to sell off its surplus electricity, as it is unable to store it or consume it locally.
An increasingly frequent and costly situation - and one that reveals the current limits of the system.
80 million euros lost in 2024 due to negative prices For several weeks now, RTE, the transmission system operator, has been sounding the alarm : France produces more electricity than it consumes, particularly around midday, when solar power injects massively into the grid.
An oversupply in a context of demand contained by energy sobriety, reinforced since the crisis of 2022. As a result, spot prices are becoming negative, forcing producers to "pay to sell".
The electricity grid cannot operate in overcapacity, because supply and demand must be balanced in real time. Unlike water or gas, electricity is very difficult to store on a large scale. If production exceeds consumption, this can cause power surges, damage infrastructure and even lead to security outages.
On 2 March this year, RTE had to pay nearly €12,000 per megawatt-hour to its European counterparts to get rid of excess electricity. Last year, according to the Commission de régulation de l'énergie (CRE), €80 million was lost by producers because of these negative prices.
This situation intensifies in spring, when solar production explodes, while the mornings and evenings remain cold, deepening the imbalances. Between March and April 2025, RTE has already had to curb renewable generation 13 times, notably by stopping wind turbines, in return for financial compensation.
Nuclear power, between strength and rigidity The return of nuclear power is not helping the imbalance. In 2024, EDF produced between 358 and 364 TWh of nuclear electricity, compared with 279 TWh in 2022, a black year marked by corrosion and reactor shutdowns.
This massive, inflexible production, combined with solar power on the rise (France added 5 GW of solar capacity last year, bringing the total to 24.5 GW), is making grid management increasingly complex.
The system is designed to operate at near-constant equilibrium, but unconsumed peaks in production are becoming a burden.
In an attempt to smooth the curve, CRE is considering a reform of peak and off-peak hours, which would see off-peak hours moved to the afternoon, when solar peaks. But storage remains the big absentee from the equation.
Alexis Gléron, who runs the consultancy Augmented Energy, expects to see this situation return "every year as long as we don't have more batteries to provide upward and downward flexibility", due to the rise in solar power.
Without massive batteries or flexibility levers, overproduction is bound to repeat itself every spring.
Bitcoin: a consumer of last resort This is where Bitcoin enters the equation, not as a currency, but as a smart consumer of surplus electricity. Bitcoin mining is based on an energy-intensive but highly flexible activity: the machines can switch on and off at will, react to network signals in a matter of seconds, and set up as close as possible to areas of overproduction.
This ability to absorb surpluses, particularly those that cannot be sold on conventional markets, is beginning to appeal to some energy companies. In the United States, solar and wind power producers have already integrated modular mining farms to make their surpluses profitable.
In the French case, these facilities could operate exclusively during negative price hours, providing a service to the grid while generating marginal income.
Bitcoin mining could thus offer a temporary safety valve, while we wait for structural solutions.
On 28 March, The Big Whale revealed that Minister Delegate in charge of the Digital Sector Clara Chappaz was opening up the possibility of EDF taking an interest in the subject.
"Rather than making it a communications issue, we need to take a serious look at it. I know that some of you have already studied it, we need to continue in a pragmatic way to evaluate what such a device could look like", she had insisted during a visit to the headquarters of Ledger, one of the world leaders in crypto-asset custody.
"We will have to analyse this type of subject from an economic point of view, without ideology, and ask ourselves the right questions."
The executive and the national energy company now have a ready-made reason to explore this project.
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