Question
Answer
There are four pie charts that give information about the generation of electricity in France and
Germany in the year 2009. One set of charts looks at the total generation of electricity, while the
other looks at how renewable forms of energy were produced. The two countries had roughly
similar amounts of renewable energy, but these came from totally different sources.
Almost six tenths of Germany electricity came from conventional thermal sources, with almost a
quarter coming from nuclear power. In France, however, about three quarters came from nuclear
power and just a tenth came from conventional thermal. Both countries had similar figures for
renewable sources – 17.4% for Germany and 13.7% for France.
In terms of different renewable energy sources, Germany relied primarily upon biomass, with forty
percent of its renewable energy from that source, compared to less than a tenth for France. More
than eighty percent of French renewables came from hydropower, compared to less than a fifth in
Germany. About a third of German renewable energy came from wind, while the figure was just a
tenth in France, and both countries produced very little solar power.
