For the phase of application of these “priority” or “favourable” zones for renewable energy projects, assent from the mayor will be required.
The National Assembly voted on Thursday a key article of the bill on renewable energies, which gives the last word to the mayors in the definition of zones of accelerated establishment. The deputies adopted by 58 votes against 27 the article 3 of the bill, in order to simplify the procedures and to support the deployment of the projects of production of renewable energies (EnR).
It also provides for “planning” measures: the municipalities will be able to bring up – in a “bottom-up” planning system – the areas where to accelerate renewable energy projects, in particular via tax incentives. For the phase of application of these “priority” or “conducive” zones, an assent from the mayor will be required.
Read alsoDo renewable energies bring more to the State than they cost?
The right-wing-dominated Senate had reached this compromise with the government. The Assembly on Thursday simplified the procedures, taking into account proposals from the various benches of the Assembly.
For places outside these priority areas, the LR deputies failed to obtain a “right of veto” from the mayors on this or that project.
SEE ALSO – Bill to accelerate renewable energies: “The State is trying to force a passage”, for Angélique Négroni
LFI and environmentalists in the niche
The LFI deputies and environmentalists have stepped up to denounce the “conform opinion” of the mayors which will be necessary at the end of the race to set up the “acceleration zones” in which renewable energy projects will be encouraged, in particular to from a tax point of view.
These parliamentarians are not opposed to the central role of mayors when proposing zones, but they would have liked the prefectural authorities to be able to decide at the end of the process in the event of disagreement. “You are in fact reintroducing a right of veto for the municipalities on the acceleration zones, with the possibility that the process will not succeed”lamented the rebellious Clémence Guetté. “We are beginning to wonder if this law is really a law of acceleration of Enr or a law of slowing down”added his colleague LFI Aurélie Trouvou.
Read alsoRenewable energies: too permissive or too rigid, the bill creates renewed tensions on agrivoltaism
Conversely, the Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher defended the principle “May the mayors take the process to the end” and said she was convinced that“a large majority will adhere to the approach”. The macronists, however, were divided, with some being in favor of “a rappel rope” prefects – they did not win their case.
On Wednesday, amendments aimed at making any wind turbine project outside the “acceleration zones” impossible were rejected.
The government is pleading for a balance with, on the one hand, areas where renewable energies will be favoured, with the “assent” of mayors, on the other hand, zones excluded from any project, and finally neutral zones, without prohibition. nor incitement. MEPs voted on Thursday evening for mayors to have more leeway in delimiting exclusion zones, and for agricultural areas to be more easily preserved.
During the night, the Assembly also adopted identical amendments from the ecologists, the socialists and the government in order to allow an increase in the tariff for the purchase of electricity produced in the priority zones in the event of weather conditions less favorable than the mean.
This means better distributing projects across the territory, while ground-mounted solar panels are concentrated in the south, and onshore wind power in the north.