The line graph compares the amount of electricity produced in terawatt-hours in France using four different sources from 1980 to 2012.

The line graph compares the amount of electricity produced in terawatt-hours in France using four different sources from 1980 to 2012. Overall, it is clear that nuclear energy was by far the most popular means of energy production for most of the period, while renewables did not have a considerable share in the industry. Thermal and hydroelectric power plants, on the other hand, generated approximately equal amounts of electricity almost every year. Regarding nuclear power and renewables, the former was used to generate only around 60 TWh of electricity in 1980; however, it soon became the most common source of energy in the country to the point that the corresponding figure peaked at approximately 430 TW-h in 2005. Over the next seven years, it experienced a downward fluctuation and finally settled at just over 400 TWh. As for the latter, their contribution was negligible until 2005, after which it saw a steady rise and stood at about 30 TWh at the end of the period. Turning to thermal and hydroelectric powers, we can see that the figure for thermal energy was the highest at around 110 TW-h initially, but after experiencing a downward trend for nearly a decade, it began to fluctuate around 50 TW-h during the subsequent years. Hydroelectricity production, however, remained relatively constant at about 60 TW-h over the entire period.