Story · Europe map · about 4 min
Electricity doesn’t stop at the border
Two layers, drawn together for the first time: dots showing whether a country made more electricity than it used in 2024, or less, and the cables that carry the difference across borders.
A teal dot sells power, an orange one buys it
Each dot is a country’s own net position in 2024, as a share of its own demand: teal for a net exporter, orange for a net importer, pale for roughly balanced. Luxembourg’s dot is the deepest orange on the map, importing the equivalent of almost three-quarters of its own demand; Sweden’s is the strongest teal, exporting more than a quarter of what it generates. The purple lines are the cables themselves, thicker where more can flow between two countries.
The thickest line on the map
France and Italy are joined by 5,100 MW of cable, the single biggest capacity in the window. France’s nuclear-heavy grid made it a net exporter of 22% of its own demand in 2024; Italy, which shut its last nuclear plant in 1990, imported the equivalent of 18% of its demand, much of it arriving down this one border.
Too small to make its own power
Luxembourg’s net position was -74% of its own demand in 2024, the deepest import Ember measured anywhere in this window. Two of its three neighbours, Germany and Belgium, were themselves net importers that year; only France, on the far side of the thick Italy line, had power to spare.
A cable can skip past the nearest border
Norway’s net position was +14% of its own demand in 2024 and Sweden’s +28%, both built mostly on hydropower. Norway’s North Sea Link sends up to 1,400 MW straight to Great Britain, skipping every country in between; Denmark and the Netherlands have their own separate cables to Britain too, at 800 and 1,000 MW each.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- Luxembourg’s -74% and Norway’s +14% both come from being a small country. Why does being small push one country one way and the other the opposite way?
- A thick purple line and a strongly coloured dot are two different things. Could a country export a lot (a strong teal dot) while only thin lines connect it to its neighbours?
Try it on the map: Switch on both layers, then click France, Italy and the line between them. What does the panel say each direction can carry?
The figures above are calculated from the datasets listed on Data & sources and are approximate: many map layers are modelled or interpolated. Read each layer’s caveats on the map.