brake on renewable energy

The “climate plan» of 40 billion euros launched in September 2020 to green French companies in four years has been achieved at 43%, but the financing of renewable energies has slowed sharply, according to a mid-term report drawn up on Tuesday. “The composition of the financing and subsidies granted by Bpifrance, totaling 20 billion euros, has been profoundly modified due to the downward revision in 2021 of the prices for the purchase of electricity from renewable sources by the ‘State“, indicated the general manager of Bpifrance, Nicolas Dufourcq, during a presentation to the press.

While Bpifrance planned to double the financing of these energies in four years by granting 13.6 billion euros in loans, the objective was reduced to 8.6 billion for this sector. “In May 2021, Bercy decided to revise downwards the prices guaranteed by the State for the purchase of electricityfor photovoltaic and wind power, reminded Nicolas Dufourcq. After the tariff revision, the developers of these clean energies have “put down the bag” because they “considered that there was instability in the French regulatory environment“, he added. The director of Bpifrance hopes that the law in preparation to simplify the administrative authorizations for these projects will allow them to be relaunched.

The ecological transition of companies goes from 3.8 to 7 billion euros

At the same time, Bpifrance has increased project financing to help companies green their production, in particular through unsecured loans, the State having increased the guarantee for these green loans (EUR 1.5 billion). euros distributed in two years). The ecological transition of companies, which also includes sobriety diagnoses and for 850 million euros thermal renovations of real estate assets, thus goes from 3.8 billion euros initially planned to 7 billion, while the financing of the Innovation is also accelerating, rising from 2.5 billion to 4.2 billion euros.

For its part, the Banque des Territoires has deployed 8.3 billion out of the 20 billion euros that it is entitled to in the climate plan. The largest item concerns the thermal renovation of 210,000 social housing units financed with 4.5 billion euros in loans. “Social housing in France is very thermally efficient, is very renovated compared to the private stock“, estimated Olivier Sichel, the director of the Banque des Territoires, which belongs to the Caisse des dépôts group, adding that there was an acceleration for public buildings.