Essay—Energy Sources

The provided pie charts reveal a statistical breakdown about the proportions of the
main energy sources used in Germany and France in 2009. Overall, the amount of
electricity generated by Germany slightly exceeded that produced by France.
Obviously, Germany used conventional thermal the most, whereas France preferred
nuclear energy over the others.
In terms of all types, it is obvious that the main electricity source in Germany was
conventional thermal, accounting for approximately two thirds of the total. Nuclear
and renewables came next in the list, at 23% and 17.4% respectively. As regards
France, nuclear power held the lion’s share of the total production, at 76%, which
was about 3 times higher than the percentage of nuclear in Germany. However,
renewables and conventional thermal took up an insignificant part of 2009’s overall
estimations, at 13.7% and 10.3% in turn.
Turning to renewable sources, it can be seen that the proportions of Germany’s most
preferred sources biomass and wind were nearly equal, each making up roughly one
third of the total. These were followed by the less used hydroelectric (17.7%) and
solar power(6.1%). The consumption of hydroelectricity in France was nearly 5 times
as much as that in Germany, at 80.5%. However, wind and biomass constituted much
smaller part of the figure compared tothan the figures for Germany, in the range
from 8 % to 10%. Solar power’s usage was less than 1%. It should also be noted that
neither country exploited geothermal sources to produce electricity.

TA 6.5-7.0 CC 6.5-7.0 LR 6.5 GRA 6.5 Overall 6.5-(7.0)