Streamline procedures, install solar panels along highways, massively develop offshore wind power: the bill on renewable energies, which arrives Monday, December 5, in the hemicycle of the National Assembly, aims to make up for the French delay.
For this text, already adopted after alterations at first reading by the Senate and in committee by the deputies, the government hopes above all to convince the left, given the strong reluctance on the right.
France, which has long relied on the power of its nuclear fleet, generated a quarter of its electricity in 2021 with renewables, a lower share than elsewhere in Europe.
But to the climate emergency, the war in Ukraine is now adding the threat of a "blackout", making it necessary for the government to change scale.
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For 2050, President Emmanuel Macron has set himself the objectives of multiplying by ten the production capacity of solar energy to exceed 100 GW and to deploy 50 wind farms at sea to reach 40 GW.
Emergency or permanent measures
It takes on average in France five years of procedures to build a solar farm, seven years for a wind farm and ten years for an offshore wind farm.
The text provides for temporary adaptations of administrative procedures to simplify and speed up projects.
With the objective "to halve the deployment time", pleads the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
Accelerate procedures
In committee, however, the deputies inflicted a setback on the government by deleting an article used to limit certain appeals.
According to the initial text, a "declaration of public utility" could amount to recognition "of the imperative reason of major public interest" (RIIPM), necessary for certain projects.
Environmental deputies, LR and RN had criticized a threat to the preservation of biodiversity, by limiting appeals.
The government intends to reintroduce this article.
Approval of mayors
The Senate adopted in session a compromise built with the government, and which replaces a right of controversial "veto" on this or that project, which had been voted in committee.
The municipalities will be able to bring up - in a "bottom-up" planning system - the areas where renewable energy projects can be accelerated.
For the phase of application of these "priority" or "conducive" zones, an assent from the mayor will be required.
But this compromise accepted by the senatorial right does not convince their LR counterparts in the Assembly, determined to reintroduce a "right of veto" for mayors, for places outside these priority areas.
More space for solar
The bill facilitates the installation of photovoltaic panels near highways and major roads.
It makes it possible to derogate from the Coastal law, in a very constrained framework, for the installation of panels on wasteland.
It aims to progressively equip outdoor car parks of more than 2,500 square meters with photovoltaic shade structures and vegetation.
The text intends to define agrivoltaism more clearly, combining agricultural exploitation and electricity production.
The wind takes to the sea
The bill proposes to pool public debates on the location of offshore wind farm projects "to improve spatial planning" and accelerate their development.
The Senate evacuated in session the provision adopted in committee which planned to favor the establishment zones located at a minimum distance of 40 kilometers from the shore.
But the LR deputies will again defend "the ban on building wind turbines at sea less than 40 kilometers from the coast", warned their leader, Olivier Marleix.
In addition, the bill establishes a system of "territorial sharing of the value of renewable energies" in order to facilitate their acceptability.
This sharing would concern the "residents" and the municipalities concerned, through discounts on invoices.
With AFP
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