Despite advances, the text which must be adopted in the National Assembly, Tuesday, is not judged up to the issues by representatives of the sector.
by Perrine Mouterde
More than a hundred pages, five titles, thirty-four articles … The bill for accelerating renewable energies from the work of the joint joint committee, which still has to be officially adopted by the National Assembly on Tuesday January 31 and then by the Senate on February 7, is a bushy and complex document.
His goal, however, as stated by the government, was clear: the text had to go “twice as quickly” to deploy renewables, in order to catch up with France’s persistent delay in the matter. “The bill will achieve this target,” says the cabinet of the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
In the state, the text contains many advances, some of which were expected for a long time. But, in the opinion of manufacturers and observers, it will not allow an accelerator to the height of the issues.
In addition to provisions that could go so far as to slow down the development of certain sectors, its impact will largely depend on future regulatory measures and the means that will be mobilized to implement it. Overview of the main measures.
With acceleration areas, mayors at the center of the game
This is a provision absent from the initial text which is now a flagship measurement. After many discussions, parliamentarians agreed on the implementation of “acceleration zones”, supposed to answer major questions: where should we install future wind and solar parks, which will have the last word concerning their location ?
This planning challenge is crucial: the deployment of wind turbines has so far been unbalanced in the territory (three regions concentrate 60 % of the park), which constitutes one of the reasons for opposition to this energy source.
Concretely, the text provides that the municipalities identify areas, depending on the data on the implantation potential provided by the State and after consultation with the public. Their proposals will be transmitted to a “prefectural referent”, created by law, which will establish a cartography at the departmental level. A regional energy committee will then have to say whether the identified areas are sufficient to achieve the regional objectives of deploying renewables. If this is the case, the municipalities will also be able to define exclusion zones. “The text simply says that these areas must” help achieve “national objectives from December 2027, which does not constitute an obligation”, notes Arnaud Gossement, lawyer in environmental law.
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