France set out a new energy law after years of wrangling on Thursday which slashes its wind and solar power targets and drops a mandate for state-run firm EDF to shutter nuclear plants.
“We need to stop our internal family squabbling. We need both nuclear and renewables,” Finance Minister Roland Lescure told reporters.
The law, to be pushed through by decree on Friday after almost three years of bitter disagreement among lawmakers, also reverses a previous legal mandate to shut 14 reactors.
That was a 2017 campaign promise of President Emmanuel Macron, who later changed course, backing nuclear expansion with a plan for at least six new reactors.
The move to pare back renewables should help shield EDF, which operates a fleet of 57 reactors, as power demand grows more slowly than expected over the next decade. The company is struggling to remain competitive as abundant wind and solar in Europe have pushed down power prices and forced reactors to lower output.
The new 10-year framework, known as the PPE, aims for EDF to produce 420 terawatt-hours of power from its existing fleet in 2035, a 5 percent increase.
“Nuclear is the backbone of our electricity system,” said Lescure, adding that a first new reactor should be inaugurated by 2038.
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EDF CEO Bernard Fontana welcomed the proposal, saying it would allow the company to advance toward its objectives. The law had triggered fierce debate among lawmakers pitting support for renewable subsidies against financing new nuclear at a time when France is struggling with high debt. The PPE also governs wind and solar tenders, and a decision on the matter is expected to be welcomed by the wind industry, which has struggled amid uncertainty over the plans and delayed tenders.
Still, wind and solar targets were lowered, to 105-135 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity by 2035 from drafts that had called for 133-163 GW.
“If this PPE is more than two years late on paper, it’s at least a decade behind in its vision of an energy transition,” Greenpeace France said in a statement.
It lowers France’s 2035 target for installed offshore wind capacity to 15 GW from 18 GW the government had submitted for consultation in 2024.
The target for onshore wind capacity drops to 35-40 GW from the 45 GW previously communicated.
Solar capacity will be 55-80 GW by 2035, the report added, down from a previous forecast of 75-100 GW. The law calls for France to consume 60 percent of its own energy from decarbonised electricity by 2030, shifting from 60 percent of energy from fossil fuels currently, and up to 70 percent from decarbonised electricity by 2035.
The new law is unlikely to lead to lower prices for end-users, said Emeric de Vigan, managing director of energy consultancy 42 Advisors, adding this could keep them from switching to electricity from oil and gas-based fuels.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)
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