Ihe deployment of renewable energies in Europe will accelerate phenomenally. This is at least the very ambitious objective of the RED III directive against which Emmanuel Macron was fighting to preserve the use of nuclear energy, in the face of a vast German but also Spanish offensive. The compromise reached by diplomats on Friday June 16 in Brussels may inspire some skepticism: the EU has set itself the objective of raising the share of renewable energies in its overall consumption to 42.5% by 2030.
A redoubled effort in less than ten years, since the current share is 22% across Europe… This objective, more political than really supported by a realistic feasibility study, becomes legally binding. France campaigned for 40%. It aligns itself with the highest claims supported by Germany or Spain. These two states, very voluntary, can even push the cursor to 45% if they see fit. Which will make as much less effort to accomplish for others…
17 football stadiums of solar panels per day
To make things more concrete, this corresponds to the deployment of seventeen football pitches of solar panels… per day! Or, sixteen wind turbines erected on land and four at sea, per day… All of this should provide, according to this image used by Sven Giegold, the German Secretary of State for Climate Action, a power of 100 gigawatts from solar and wind power.
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The real difficulty for France lay in the sub-objective of the RED III directive concerning the decarbonisation of industry. Here, green energy is hydrogen, which would replace gas. The Germans refused to consider as “green” the hydrogen produced from electricity of nuclear origin. Berlin fears that France, taking advantage of its nuclear fleet, is neglecting its objectives in terms of renewable energy, as if the two projects – extension of the nuclear fleet and the wind farm – were incompatible. However, there is nothing more false: the dedicated teams are not the same.
The Spaniards in ambush
Moreover, France is not lagging behind Germany. The share of renewables in final consumption followed a parallel curve on both sides of the Rhine. In 2021, France even has the luxury of being very slightly ahead of Germany… Robert Habeck, the German Minister for the Economy and the Climate, was a little surprised when, during a negotiation, Agnès Pannier- Runacher, the French Minister for Energy Transition, showed him this graph. Certainly, France has not reached the 23% promised (by Jean-Louis Borloo in 2007 against the advice of his administration), but it has not won compared to Germany.
For months, this fixation point poisoned the relationship between Paris and Berlin. Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz discussed it on several occasions, in particular during a breakfast on the sidelines of a European Council on March 23. The Spaniards camped, more discreetly, on the German positions. For them, French nuclear is a rival of their own energy assets and they intend to become a power exporting green hydrogen (from renewable energies).
A derogation for French ammonia plants
The Swedish presidency, in the midst of this firing range, produced a first compromise proposal on March 30. Unacceptable for France. The talks dragged on for another two and a half months and finally came to a conclusion on Friday evening. To get out of this impasse, the Élysée sought a third way: neither to swallow the Swedish compromise without flinching nor to go into battle with a flower in hand. France has a specific problem with ammonia, the synthesis of which for fertilizers and chemicals comes from fossil hydrogen. Requiring to switch to green hydrogen would have been too expensive. France has therefore obtained a derogation at European level for ammonia plants which will be excluded from the calculation of the industrial sub-objectives. It will therefore be able to use nuclear power to decarbonize this part of our industry. In return, Paris agrees to the very ambitious objectives of the RED III directive on renewables. This compromise is “bearable”, according to Sven Giegold.
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Next step: the compromise must be validated by the European Parliament. A priori, the parliamentary majority should be in favor of it. For the objectives of RED III to materialize, the issuance of permits to build wind turbines must be dramatically accelerated. The simplification of regulations has been underway for several years. In 2018, it took between seven and nine years for a wind farm project to succeed. In Germany, it takes between three and four years, and that’s still too long. The numerous court actions are partially canceling out efforts to simplify the regulations.
The Commission will then set out the objectives State by State. Agnès Pannier-Runacher fully expects, at that time, that the Commission will take into account the decarbonization efforts already made by France. “Today there is no roadmap that indicates that we are collectively capable of achieving these figures, she underlined during an interview with Point, may’s beginning. If we really want to achieve them, the Commission will have to align the accompanying measures. So allocate funds from the RepowerUE plan.