France's Renewable Energy Acceleration Bill Removes Barriers To Project Development

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Law Firm: McDermott Will & Emery
• Subject Matter: Energy and Natural Resources, Energy Law, Renewables
• Author: Mr Laurent Ayache, Amy Frey, Nicolas Lafont and Sabine Naugès
• Published date: 03 March 2023

On February 8, 2023, the French Senate voted for the adoption of the Renewable Energy Acceleration Bill (Projet de loi relatif à l'accélération de la production d'énergies renouvelables) which was first introduced in September 2022 by France's Energy Transition Minister, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. The bill is a culmination of months of negotiations among the members of the National Council for Ecological Transition (le conseil national de la transition écologique).

The overarching objective of the bill is to remove barriers to the development of renewable energy projects by improving administrative processes and expanding access to project sites. The bill comes at a time when France is behind in meeting its objective of sourcing 32% of its energy consumption from renewables by 2030 set by the Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001/EU.

IN DEPTH

The key takeaways of the bill are:

• The creation of "acceleration zones," (des zones d'accélération pour l'implantation d'installations terrestres de production d'énergies renouvelables), in which procedures for developing renewable energy projects will be expedited. Areas meeting the following criteria can become "acceleration zones"
  • having the potential to accelerate the production of renewable energy as a result of, for example, abundant sunlight or wind;
  • contributing to the solidarity of supply between territories therefore decreasing the dependence on foreign importation of energy;
  • posing no risk of water nor land pollution;
  • taking into account the need to diversify renewables according to the specific characteristics in each territory, thereby confirming France's commitment to develop a variety of sectors and
  • are not national parks or natural reserves, thus maintaining the country's protection of competing environmental concerns.
• Renewable energy installation projects will satisfy the presumption of serving an overriding public interest and thus may qualify for certain exemptions set out in the Environmental Code regarding zoning and natural habitats.
• Reducing administrative delays. One of the factors attributed to France's lag in renewable energy production was the issue of administrative delay, as on average it currently takes five years of administrative procedures to build a solar park, seven years for an onshore wind farm and ten years for an offshore windfarm. According to the new bill, processing time for the examination phase in acceleration zones will now have a maximum time limit of three months.
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