Quelle énergie choisir pour le futur ?

The episode is produced in partnership with energy company ENGIE, with independent authors and consultants.

Plants are autotrophs, able to feed themselves through photosynthesis using solar energy, while humans are heterotrophs and must consume other living beings to survive.

Energy has shaped human history, from conflicts over agricultural resources to modern wars over oil.

Tell the progressive history of energy discovery and exploration as a journey of understanding rather than as conquest or war.

Fire, discovered and mastered 400,000 years ago, protects from cold and transforms matter: cooking food, hardening wood, forging metals, and creating materials like brick, ceramic, and glass.

Cooking food transformed human brains, which are very large energy consumers.

• Wood remains France's number one renewable energy for half a million years • In the Middle Ages, wood represents 95% of all energy consumed • Renewable does not mean pollution-free: fireplace fires release fine particles

Between 9,000 and 2,000 years ago, agriculture and animal husbandry supplemented fire as an energy source.

• Between 9,000 and 2,000 years ago, teams of donkeys, oxen, dromedaries, camels, elephants, yaks, and horses served for transport and plowing • The breast-strap harness improved traction around 200 BCE, followed by the collar in 800 CE • Heavy plows enabled large-scale land clearing in the Middle Ages from the 10th to 13th centuries

• Around 3,000 BCE, the first sailing ships use wind for transporting goods • Around 700 CE, Persians applied wind energy to industry with horizontal-blade mills powered by regular desert winds in Sistan • This system spread to Europe in the 12th century after Crusaders discovered it

• Water wheels placed in streams power machines without needing animals • In Far East, in the 5th and 6th centuries, engineer Gao perfected hydraulic machines coupled with bellows to heat furnaces at very high temperatures • China produced 114,000 tons of cast iron per year in the 11th century, long before England in the 18th century

Air belongs to everyone, unlike rivers which are subject to feudal rights and taxes.

Humanity domesticated fire, air, water, and earth, using soil biomass as a vital resource.

Solar radiation powers plants, animals, air masses and thus wind, rain, and ocean currents, explaining why Earth dwellers long associated the Sun with a deity.

Human muscle power supplements renewable machines and represents colossal energy.

Slavery and serfdom were real pillars of energy production during this era.

Population grows and the planet's capacity is overestimated. By 1650, wood becomes scarce in England, which increasingly uses coal in the 18th century.

By heating coal, coke is obtained without impurities, ideal for industry and accelerating industrialization.

• Coal and oil have been known and used since the Middle Ages and Antiquity for heating and maintaining ship hulls • Alsatian oil from Pechelbronn is used in the Renaissance • This is a change in scale and industrial extraction, not a new discovery

Fossil fuels maximize converting heat energy into mechanical energy.

• Giovanni Branca, Edward Somerset, Ferdinand Verbiest, Denis Papin, Thomas Savery, Thomas Newcomen, and Henry Beighton contribute to steam engine development • James Watt revolutionizes industry in the 19th century with his engine developed in the late 18th century

Coal becomes the dominant energy of industrial nations only in the second half of the 19th century, except for England.

• Ships travel faster • Trains go farther • More powerful machines accomplish titanic work

In Pas-de-Calais, coal consumption rises from 12 million tons annually in 1865 to 40 million in 1913.

In 1881, the first international electricity exhibition takes place in Paris at the Palace of Industry, showcasing the electric bulb, dynamo, and streetcar.

• Streets are lit • Telegraph enables instant communication • This Electricity Fairy completely transforms the Western landscape

Public telegraph becomes booth, then home telephone, finally mobile phone.

Household electrical appliances multiply and today each French household has an average of 100 electrical devices.

• World War I shows that war without motors is no longer possible • Tractor, tank, airplane, munitions factories, and military headquarters become absolutely necessary • Georges Clemenceau declares in 1917 that the United States enters a motorized society

• Energy materials must be purchased from abroad • Cannot store large quantities of oil given our consumption • Commercial flow must remain continuous

• France creates the French Oil Company in 1924 • The law of March 30, 1928 gives the State monopoly over imported quantities, distribution, and oil prices

• Suez Canal crisis in 1956 • Algerian independence in 1962 • Oil shocks in 1972 and 1978 • Conflict in Ukraine • France remains in a model of relative energy dependence

Our consumer and comfort society with suburban homes, cars, and daily commutes creates energy sinkholes that explode demand.

27.6% of our electricity in 2020 remains dedicated to heating.

The suburban-car society model created energy overconsumption.

If oil flow stops tomorrow, in less than two weeks the country will be dry.

• Exiled researchers during the occupation hear of the Manhattan military nuclear project • After the war, they found the Atomic Energy Commission, a civilian not military entity • In 1946, all electricity producers are nationalized under the name EDF • In 1956, France's first nuclear power plant starts reactor G1 in Marcoule

• Despite CNRS advances, renewable research only begins in the 1950s • Renewable is efficient but not very profitable • When oil rises, we try, but when it falls again, we go soft on renewable

Oil consumption for electricity production is reduced by replacing it with nuclear.

Even with nuclear, 28% of our energy consumption remains imported oil in 2020.

• Humans make do: each period has faced its own energy crisis • We never wipe the slate clean: wood, hydropower, and wind accumulate over time • When we began consuming more coal, we also increased wood consumption

Only today does climate urgency become a priority factor.

Today's photovoltaic is far more efficient, less polluting, and 80% cheaper than ten years ago.

According to the International Energy Agency, completely rejecting gas and oil is unrealistic given our heavy dependence.

Find a wise balance between nuclear and renewable energy while reducing fossils: this is the energy mix.

• A 95% wood energy monopoly was only viable for a small population with low consumption • Monopoly came with cheap labor: slaves and serfs • Breaking monopoly prevents social drift and excessive dependence

• Billions of euros imported each year leave the country instead of paying for hospitals • We always seek cheap: oil for wood, then coal for wood, then nuclear for oil

If cars disappear, crowds of underpaid porters, delivery workers, and messengers could reappear: it all depends on social progress.

The windmill appeared in Persia in a favorable space, then took root in Europe in windy countries near coasts.

• Some continental regions retained their water mills for a very long time • Each exploits available energy on site: Aude wind, Alsatian oil, Northern coal

France has wind, sun, and maritime coastlines, allowing a wealth of renewable energies favorable to a balanced energy mix.

Coastal areas could become tomorrow's sources of renewable energies.

We have not yet discovered magical, unlimited, non-polluting energy with zero risk, simply because it does not exist.

• Renewable depends on climate • Wood needs time to regrow • Nuclear is low-carbon but reactors shut down during droughts due to lack of cooling water • Nuclear can cause very serious damage when there is an accident

We must not delay changing habits, but we must do it all together.

Debating these questions with respect is really important for finding the best energy path.