• An article of a ministerial decree of October 6 prohibits the accumulation of state and local aid for photovoltaic installations less than or equal to 500 kW installed on buildings, hangars, shade rooms, etc.

  • A decision seen as a halt to many citizen solar energy production initiatives.

  • The development of civic solar power plants is part of the “energy mix” which would allow the Eurometropolis to reach the 100% renewable energy target for 2050, and to commit to carbon neutrality.

It is a decree that plunges the world of photovoltaic installations of collective citizens into darkness. Article 13 of a ministerial decree of October 6 prohibits the accumulation of aid from the State (generally a fixed price for the purchase price per kWh) and from local authorities, which are used in particular for installation and maintenance, photovoltaic structures. The decree concerns installations with a peak power of less than 500 kilowatts. Basically, those spread over less than 500 m2, most often placed on the roofs of gymnasiums, parking shades, on public buildings, generally made available by communities to groups of volunteers.

This practice, in full swing and full of hope to fight against global warming, is widely encouraged in the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg.

Since June 2019, it has been entrusted to the Alter Alsace Énergies association, which it has appointed.

Thirteen collective projects have been set up in Alsace, which mobilizes a few hundred people who have invested money and are shareholders.

Concretely, this represents in Alsace more than 140 photovoltaic projects, of which 20% have already been installed.

Ambitious projects "showered" by the decree

If this type of project is popping up all over the country, the decree of October 6 is "a serious brake on its development", according to Eloi Navarro, consultant specializing in energy savings at Alter Alsace Énergies.

"There is a real concern, it puts a blow to the morale of all citizens who mount ambitious projects and today see their efforts a little" showered "by this announcement.

"

However, the decree signed by the Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili, on the contrary, wanted to facilitate the development of renewable energies by extending to projects of less than 500 kW the right to a fixed purchase price (nearly 10 centimes approximately kWp), without having to go through a call for tenders.

A right limited until now to installations below 100 kW.

If the project leaders finally have the choice between the State package or that of local aid, in fact, they will not really have any other solution than to choose the fixed purchase of their production. “Otherwise they must themselves negotiate the purchase price with EDF or ES in Strasbourg. It is less common and especially less advantageous because the redemption price is around half of the package offered by the State. So in the end, it comes down to having to refuse local aid, ”worries Eloi Navarro. A detrimental refusal according to the advisor, the benefits are not only economic. They are also educational because this green economy also allows appropriation, "local management of renewable energies and support for the local economy." "

Also, the hopes of Alter Alsace Énergies or nationally of the Shared Energy network, are now based on pressure from local communities, economic players and political representatives and all players in the solar sector, to change the situation while offering solutions. solutions.

At the head, "a regionalization of the regulated feed-in tariff of the kWh, that is to say concretely an increase of approximately 30% in the less sunny regions, estimates Eloi Navarro.

This would allow the facilities to be as profitable in the north as in the south.

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