In the complicated days of COP28 in Dubai the matchthe energy in Europe it scores a point in favor of France. President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne evidently do not want to go down in the history of the Union as the only supporters of nuclear power.
The appeal of twenty countries to triple nuclear power by 2050 helps them, but Paris is also thinking of something else. The EU Commission granted the government 4,12 billion euros for two offshore wind farms. Two large floating structures in the Gulf of Lion with a support duration of 20 years. It is an extraordinary decision given that they are among the first commercial projects of this type in France.
Nor can it be ruled out that support for a non-primary energy source is part of a certain realpolitik of the Union at the halfway point of the parliamentary mandate. In fact, Macron skillfully brings the country closer to a diversification of sources, lowering foreign dependence for the uncovered part of the atom.
Each of the two parks will have capacity between 230 and 280 MW and it will produce more than 1 Terawatt of renewable electricity per year.
Good managers and new law wanted
European support will go to two managing bodies who will be selected through a tender procedure in 2024. The company that presents the best difference between the beneficiary's tender price and the electricity market price will win.
The availability of new energy is linked to the containment of prices for families and businesses. An entirely internal game that does not abandon the Macron presidency over which the right is going to clash. We'll do one new law on energy, said Prime Minister Borne. “It will be part of the first measures that we will present in 2024. It will have to contribute to strengthening our competitiveness. We must review the entire pricing framework to protect consumers and businesses who have suffered from the price flare-up.”
Words that try to make the government-citizen relationship less conflictual, which exploded - and never completely forgotten - in 2019 with the protests of yellow vest, precisely because of fuel prices.
More generally, the crisis is biting the purchasing power of the French and has posed the problem of a reindustrialization plan to the centrist executive. The energy law itself “is a pillar for reindustrialization,” Borne said Le Figaro.
2023 ends with several misalignments between electoral promises and the daily practice of millions of French people. Diversified energy can become a social calmer
