PARIS (Reuters) – The Senate adopted the bill on the acceleration of renewable energies overnight from Friday to Saturday, agreeing to lift two major sticking points on the role of mayors in the construction of projects and the regulations concerning offshore wind power.
This text proposes emergency measures to accelerate the production of renewable energy with the aim of halving project completion times.
In particular, this involves specifying the procedures for informing and involving the public, simplifying the regulations, allowing, for example, the installation of photovoltaic panels near motorways or even clarifying the legal status of offshore wind turbines.
Adopted by 320 votes in favor against five against, the senators agreed to reconsider two blocking measures introduced in the Committee on Regional Planning and Sustainable Development.
The elected officials wanted to give a right of veto to the mayor of the municipality where the project is located, as well as to the mayors whose municipalities are located nearby and to the public establishments for inter-municipal cooperation (EPCI).
They also wanted to reintroduce a limit of 40 kilometers to build wind farms at sea, which, according to the Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher, would have greatly limited the development potential of projects in the Channel and at sea. Mediterranean.
Agreeing to give mayors “the last word”, the government proposed in an amendment to allow elected officials to define “priority areas” for the development of renewable energy projects and gave mayors the possibility of opposing the establishment of these areas on their territory.
“We are clearly at the rendezvous of the urgency of energy sovereignty, purchasing power and the competitiveness of our companies, not to mention of course the fight against climate change”, rejoiced the Minister of the Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher when voting on the text.
The bill has been enriched to provide for better sharing of the value of projects and includes more provisions on photovoltaics, biogas and even hydrogen. It will be debated in the National Assembly from December 5.
(Caroline Pailliez)
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