Solar energy could be deployed in France much faster than today and provide the country with the equivalent in energy of one to two nuclear reactors by 2025, pleads the sector, which calls for an “exceptional plan ” in a context of energy emergency.
Awareness of our energy needs, against a backdrop of soaring gas and oil prices, aging nuclear power plants and then the war in Ukraine, is an opportunity to accelerate the development of renewable resources, underlines Daniel Bour, President of Enerplan, the union of solar professionals.
“France holds the European record for slowness,” he notes.
In fact, despite a record year 2021 with more than 2 gigawatts (GW) of new installations, it is glaringly behind in achieving its solar objectives, set by the State.
The country, which forecasts 20 GW of installed capacity in 2023, is only at 13 GW – a mix of residential, large and medium roofs and shadehouses and ground-mounted power plants (for 60%).
President Emmanuel Macron proposed in February in Belfort to increase the projects tenfold to reach 100 GW in 2050.
But for Daniel Bour, Belfort “was before Ukraine and the awareness of gas dependence. Solar power can do more”: 200 GW at least.
And for the time being, he has a plan: to achieve an additional 25 GW by 2025, the equivalent of one to two EPR reactors – when France does not plan to inaugurate a new reactor before 2037 (excluding the Flamanville EPR under construction since 2012).
For the solar sector, the objective is nothing extraordinary: “Germany, Italy… have already made 10 GW in one year”.
“Because the governments had a clear desire to push them”, underlines Daniel Bour. “In France, the challenge was not the same: the country was more decarbonized”, via nuclear power. “Except that today, it has evolved”.
– Factories in Europe –
To show its effectiveness, the profession proposes to focus first on degraded land, with a simplification of the investigation procedure for these sites which are currently subject to the same administrative constraints as sensitive natural sites.
Old quarries, old mines, buried waste areas, land abandoned on highways, around airports or railway tracks… “the army has them too”, he underlines
Enerplan calls for “derogation measures, for a limited time”, by directive or by law, to speed up the permitting process.
“Solar is subject to three codes – environmental, energy, urban planning – which can contradict each other and there are such layers of obligations that this leads to blockages”, describes Daniel Bour.
“Let’s go where we can go!”, says the manager, who also wants to reassure: “when the land is a problem, there is no question of derogation. But there are degraded or polluted land for which we do too much; for those there, there would always be an environmental study, but abbreviated,” he suggests.
Solar “is easily mobilized, and it is an almost exclusively private investment”, he pleads again. The State has long guaranteed the prices, but at the current level of the electricity market, it is now a net beneficiary.
As photovoltaic panels spread, isn’t the sector afraid of a rise in reluctance, as for wind power?
“We need around 13,000 hectares by 2025, 120 ha per department, that’s reasonable”, answers Daniel Bour. “But yes, you have to be careful, not to compete with agriculture, to discuss with the population, to fit into the landscape. And then, with a few exceptions, we do not favor the model of very large power stations”.
Finally, solar has another argument, another imperative in fact: the installation in Europe of solar panel factories, he insists.
But hasn’t the mainland already lost the battle to the Chinese?
“Not at all!” replies Daniel Bour: “Technology is constantly changing, it is found everywhere. And the crisis has increased the cost of transport, settling in Europe is becoming profitable”.
“China flooded the market because it had a big domestic market. If there is more volume here, naturally the manufacturers will come.”