France doubles its support for electricity use as a source of energy

The French government will double its current support for the country by spending up to 10 billion euro ($11.72 billion), annually, until 2030.

The measures include increasing the use of electric vehicles and modernising home heating. They are intended to wean the country from imported energy in order to prevent a future disruption like the one caused by the war in Iran which has caused seaborne oil and gas cargoes to be paralysed and have destroyed the energy infrastructure in the Middle East.

Lecornu stated in a television address that "60 percent of our current energy consumption is imported fossil fuels even though the nuclear power we produce at home is three times cheaper."

He added: "As long we depend on oil and natural gas, the wars of other people will continue, and unfortunately, they will continue, and impoverish us."

By 2030, France aims to replace domestic electricity with 85 Terawatt hours of gas. This is equivalent to 20% of France's annual gas import bills.

France plans to install one million additional heat pumps between now and 2030. It will also block the installation of new gas boilers in newly constructed homes starting next year.

(source: Reuters)