The Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, announced on Thursday 28 July an initial package of regulatory measures to” emergency “ to accelerate the development of renewable energies, which ensure “nearly 20% of electricity needs in 2022” from resources available in France.
Several renewable energy production projects are currently threatened by rising construction costs, which are not “no longer covered by the purchase price of electricity or biomethane guaranteed by the State”, the ministry said in a statement. This concerns 6 to 7 gigawatts (GW) for solar projects and 5 to 6 GW for wind power.
The first measures, which will be published in Official newspaper in the coming days, should make it possible to unblock projects or to speed up some of them before winter, a period of anticipated tension on energy supplies due to the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Other measures by the end of the summer
The first of these will allow projects that are completed quickly to sell their electricity at high market prices for eighteen months before the contracts concluded in the context of calls for tenders take effect. This should make it possible to compensate for the additional costs, according to the details of the ministry to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A second measure is to allow the price of resold energy to be indexed, so that it better reflects the increase in the costs of future projects subject to the tariff windows, while a third is to freeze the initially planned reduction in tariffs for projects photovoltaics on buildings.
Finally, projects that have responded to calls for tenders will be able to increase their capacity by 40%, without justification, before they go into service. Projects for biomethane production facilities will benefit from additional time to allow them to deal with the difficulties linked to the health crisis and supply problems.
Other regulatory measures for renewable electricity or gas are expected by the end of the summer, in addition to a broader law to accelerate the deployment of renewables.