Some 200 million euros will be invested in renewable gas infrastructure, via a fund whose launch was announced Thursday at a conference of the Union of Renewable Energies (SER).
The decarbonization of gas "is an important project" and this Eiffel Gaz Vert fund "intends to participate actively in the development of the renewable gas sector in France and in Europe", underlined its participants, the asset manager of Eiffel Investment Group, the Banque des Territoires, GRTgaz, Société Générale Assurances and ADEME Investissement, in a press release.
Endowed with 116 million euros of investment capacity, it aims at a total of 200 million by the end of 2020, to finance over three years a hundred methanation units, particularly capital-intensive installations.
A few hundred thousand to 10 million euros will go to each operation, via minority shareholdings and capital or quasi-capital contributions allowing farmers and industrialists with projects to keep control.
A partnership between public and private actors
"The fund is the fruit of exemplary cooperation between public and private players," said Minister of Ecological Transition Elisabeth Borne, noting its "coherence" with France's energy roadmap over ten years (multi-year programming Energy, PPE), currently in public consultation.
The Banque des Territoires (Caisse des Dépôts) in particular invested 40 million, as did GRTgaz. "After an initial investment of more than 8 million euros in a project led by Naskeo in the Doubs, we are working on numerous investments in France and in Europe," explains Marc-Etienne Mercadier, manager of the Eiffel Gaz Vert fund.
For Pierre de Froidefond, spokesperson for the France Biomethane think tank, "the investment needs are massive to ensure the energy transition of our country's gas": "the sector enjoys strong visibility thanks to the PPE framework, but he is facing falling purchasing prices and subsidies. ”
France forecasts that the share of renewable in gas consumption will rise to 10% in 2030 (compared to 1.4% in 2018). But in the PPE project, the progress objectives are measured, with 6 terawatt hours (TWh) of biomethane injected into the networks in 2023, a decline compared to the current PPE.
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