How the government wants to encourage the development of photovoltaics

Europe 1 with AFP 6:07 p.m., November 3, 2021

The government wants to encourage the installation of photovoltaic panels on wasteland to increase the share of electricity produced by renewables without artificialising the soil.

This was announced Wednesday by the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili.

The climate and resilience law of August 2021 already provides for the installation of photovoltaic panels on new constructions (offices, warehouses, car parks, etc.) from a certain surface area.

"We are also going to do it now on wasteland," Barbara Pompili told franceinfo.

"We have a potential of 8 gigawatts on wastelands which today are useless on which we can put solar panels," added the Minister.

Multiply production by three

A plan unveiled on Wednesday should make it possible to increase the share of photovoltaics in electricity production in France, which represented only a little more than 2% in 2021. "Today we are at 12 gigawatts. We need 'by 2028 to triple the installations and by 2050 to multiply by at least seven our photovoltaic installations, "said Barbara Pompili.

This plan provides for the publication of a new decree "to allocate public support to photovoltaic projects of less than 500 kW without a call for tenders (...) in order to develop degraded land presenting limited challenges in terms of biodiversity and landscape ".

"A study carried out by Ademe and the decentralized services of the State made it possible to identify wastelands likely to accommodate nearly 8GW of photovoltaic panels", specifies the text.

This plan also aims to develop a thousand photovoltaic projects on public land by 2025.

No more permits required for small projects

In addition, administrative procedures are simplified for small-scale projects of less than 300 kilowatts. "The installation of photovoltaic panels on existing buildings and car park shade shelters will no longer be subject to environmental assessment. The threshold for this assessment for low-power ground projects will be also raised to take into account the technological evolution of photovoltaic panels ", specifies the text.

Between 300 and 600 kilowatts, the assessment will be done on a case-by-case basis, the ministry said.

"Consistently and to support the evolution of technologies (a project of the same surface represents a much greater power than 10 or even 5 years ago), the building permit will no longer be required for small projects", according to the text.

"A simple prior declaration of work will be necessary".