The government has asked the prefects to “initiate all necessary actions” to speed up the processing of ongoing renewable energy projects, including onshore wind farms, according to a circular dated Friday and obtained by the Context site.
Faced with the energy crisis, four ministers, including those of the Interior, Ecological Transition and Energy Transition, ask the decentralized services of the State to “implement all the necessary actions to facilitate and speed up the processing of files (…) in progress and to come”. In total, these investigated files represent “almost 10 GW of photovoltaic and wind projects and around 5 TWh of renewable gas capacities”.
Five gigawatt hours of projects awaiting authorization
For the Government, it is about “ensuring that no instruction exceeds 24 months, except in very exceptional circumstances,” according to this circular. The decentralized services of the State are also invited to observe “an objective of 18 months between the date of presentation of a project to renew or increase the power of existing wind farms, and its commissioning”.
According to Michel Gioria, general delegate of France wind energy, the union of professionals in the wind industry (350 members), the circular aims, in particular, to speed up the processing of onshore wind energy files, sources of recurring controversy in the public opinion. “There are 5 GW of projects (onshore wind) pending authorization, that is, 15% of the capacity already installed in the territory, which is considerable,” he stressed.
One of the only ways to generate additional electricity.
As the development of wind projects draws increasing opposition, making it difficult to deploy, the government wants to pass a bill to speed up the process and catch up with France’s lag in wind and solar power. In February, in a speech delivered in Belfort shortly before the war in Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron laid out the lines of France’s new energy policy, announcing a vast plan to revive civilian nuclear power and the development of wind power. marine, but a brake on terrestrial energy. wind turbines.
Source: BFM TV
