French blow to power alternatives puts wind up renewables supporters

Date: 27/05/04

EUROPE'S renewable energy sector is warily eyeing plans in France for an ambitious new national energy package it claims could favour nuclear power and centralized electricity grids at the expense of alternative energies and decentralized distribution networks.

The national assembly, or French parliament, has begun debating government proposals for a controversial long-term national energy strategy that would involve the construction of a new generation of power stations.

The European Renewable Energies Federation (EREF) has since expressed alarm over "a blow feared against wind energy in France".

EREF, in a recent statement, also said it was "dismayed by the tactics used by incoming Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to rush a major piece of national legislation through the parliament with inadequate provisions or time for reflection or debate to its controversial contents".

The French government has tabled the so-called orientation law as an "emergency measure", which gives the parliament only days of debate before having to proceed on a vote.

The move has outraged both the opposition Socialists and renewables interests, concerned that the plan will further entrench nuclear power and monopoly power firm Electricité de France (EDF).

Peter Danielsson, EREF's president, said that if "a huge amount of public money" ends up being spent on the new government's nuclear project it will only serve to "deepen the uneven level of the playing field in France".

It would also, he claimed, "be in breach of Article 3 of the EC directive on the internal electricity market, asking member states to abstain from market distortions and discrimination".

Renewing the country's large park of power stations is indeed a key element of the government's strategy. Nearly half of France's 58 reactors, producing 78% of the country's electricity, will reach the end of their design life by 2015. Some of the new reactors could be operational by 2010, according to the proposals.

However, in a new push to promote energy efficiency, the government is also promising to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 75% (compared to 1990 levels) by 2050, the most ambitious commitment yet outlined by any European government. It shows up former front-runner Britain, which has committed to a 60% emissions cut by 2050. Yet with an electricity system already dominated by carbon-free nuclear production, France would face even tougher challenges to meet its target.

Other "green" goals include improving French energy intensity (the ratio of energy consumption to gross domestic product) by 2% per year to 2015, compared with the annual rate of 0.8% achieved during the past 20 years. A key measure designed to boost energy efficiency is to introduce tradeable energy savings certificates. The law also tightens building regulations relating to insulation.

Regarding alternative energy sources, the government is aiming to grow renewable production of heat by half between now and 2015 and renewable electricity by 25%. The draft law fixes a target of a 3-6% share of biofuels in transport by the same date, compared with 1% now. But EREF warns that amendments introduced to the draft law by national assembly deputy Serge Poignant and by Patrick Ollier, chairman of the parliament's economic affairs committee, could seriously stifle the wind energy industry in France.

EREF's Danielsson claimed the amendments "would render any wind energy development impossible in France" due to new barriers to planning "especially via instruments such as veto rights of landscape committees".

"With such a policy we cannot see how France will ever achieve its indicative targets of increasing renewable energies it has committed itself to within the framework of the EC directive on the promotion of renewable electricity," he added.

Moreover, the draft law is also aimed at privatizing part of the capital of power giant EDF in line with the ongoing liberalization of EU energy markets.

But EREF claims that by only partially privatizing EDF capital, the draft law was not "fully complying with the EU objectives of enlarging competition of energy choices".

In addition, its statement warns: "The fact that the French government will maintain a majority ownership of EDF and impose decisions that include nuclear energy without a true national debate also have vast European and international implications."

The reason for EREF's dramatic tone: "EDF has taken advantage of the EU open market and its privileged national position to acquire a major share of markets in other countries.

"This is manifested both through its exports of electricity or its acquisition of the total or part interest in the capital of other EU power companies. In France itself, its dominant position on the market has also tended to impose its policies and practices to the detriment of renewable energies and other competitors."

The French Parliament has begun debating government proposals for a controversial long-term national energy strategy that would involve the construction of a new generation of power stations.

http://www.eref-europe.org/ http://www.eref-europe.org/

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