SLC Contribution to the National Debate on the Energy Policy

Advocating a new orientation for the PPE

Some of the LTECV and the 2016/2023 PPE objectives are already out of reach, as has been corroborated by the government. Imposing to the 2018/2028 PPE the LTECV's constraining and unreachable objectives, only because such is the law, would weaken the energy sectors, EDF[5] especially. It would be very risky to build the PPE without previously revisiting the LTECV objectives toward a pragmatic approach.

SLC proposes to reorient the French energy policy exclusively in favor of the climate, within the best economic and social conditions, without ideology;

SLC states its mid-term strategy based on proven technologies[6] and, for the longer term extending to 2050[7], in a prospective manner.

The transportation sector (41% of the CO₂ emissions).

The transition to electricity powered transportation (the transport sector's emissions are unchanged since 2010) must be a nationally supported program run with the industry, including battery development. The electricity supply sector must champion this ambition (competitiveness, reliability, strong grid, carbon content reduction). Both electric vehicles and rechargeable hybrid vehicles should come first. Second generation bio fuels will contribute little in the next ten years, the technology is not yet proven.

However, optimizing internal combustion engines will remain of interest over time if only for the automobile industry's exports (to countries with poor grid connections or whose electricity is carbon intensive).

A societal transformation of mobility must be thought out, but without forgetting the numerous and scattered populations living at the outskirts of cities or in a rural environment, where public transportation is nonexistent or insufficient.

The residential and tertiary sector (24% of the CO₂ emissions).

Half of the buildings date from before 1975 and 54% of domestic heating still relies on domestic heating oil (12%) and natural gas (42%). Globally:

• Reconsider the technical regulation that applies to new buildings (RT 2012) to eliminate fossil fuel use in new housing. The sole valid criterion: limit CO₂ emissions per unit area and per year, at minimum cost.
• For existing buildings, opt for the renovation of energy-consuming constructions, first those heated with domestic heating oil, second with natural gas. Settle on the most efficient thermal insulation programs without insisting on reaching unrealistic and costly final energy consumption performances.
• Consider as vital national programs the professional training of workers in the renovation sector, the development of innovative solutions for renovation, and "smart" energy management.
• Adjourn any measure included in the LTCEV that has no significant impact on GHG emissions and threatens tariff equalization for citizens and SMBs: obligation to build positive energy buildings according to the RT 2012 regulation, government aid to self-use of electric power production.

The electric power sector (6% to 8% of the CO₂ emissions)

From 2008 to 2018 inclusive, 26 billion € will have been levied through a tax, the CSPE[8], strangely mainly on carbon-free electricity, to cover the public support to wind and solar energies (that deploy nearly 100 % imported devices). This corresponds to 300 € per tonne of CO₂ which has been avoided, 30 times the CO2 cost on the European market. It has already increased the price of electricity by 28% (INSEE[9]). Modifying the electric power mix by reducing the contribution of carbon-free nuclear power will have very little impact on the GHG emissions. It is neither urgent nor necessary.

Maintaining the nuclear fleet (including the EPR and the Fessenheim[10] plants) is vital if France is to keep a major asset, a carbon-free and load tracking electricity mix, without needing over-investments. Germany, after a 200 billion € investment for 101 GW of intermittent renewable electric power to replace 10 GW of nuclear plants, emits as much CO₂ as it did in 2009. And its electricity for households is 80% more expensive! The PPE should be limited to reducing the sector's GHG emissions at controlled cost.

We must protect ourselves from the weakening of European networks resulting from a non-concerted development of intermittent renewable energies, limited European grid interconnections, generally simultaneous intermittent productions, and the forecasted decommissioning of several nuclear and coal facilities. 

Wind and photo-voltaic power generation are mature technologies and should comply with market obligations (rapid limitation of all public support, contribution to load following and suppression of access priority).

• The absence of seasonal storage will durably limit their efficiency.
• Regionalization of production and self-consumption should not be developed while ignoring the constraints and costs of distribution. We must not jeopardize the equalization of tariffs and the social consequences it would have. There is a risk of social differentiation through the provision of subsidies to an affluent part of the population and imputing a portion of the cost of distribution and of controllable productions on those, generally poorer, who cannot produce electricity.
• The existing nuclear plant fleet renewal must be prepared, and France's efficient, centralized grid must be safeguarded.

Thermal renewable energies (10% of final energy consumption).

This sector is the poor relative of the LTECV. Its growth has been insignificant in recent years due to the (justified) freeze on first generation bio-fuels, the slow evolution concerning solid biomass, and the curb put on heat pumps and thermal solar

• The ambitions put forward concerning solid biomass would require rethinking the economy of a forest space whose ownership is scattered (long term financing) and modernization of the sector (harvest, saw-mills, timber) and training. It will take time.
• Thermal solar (domestic hot water and passive solar heating of buildings) is practically ruled out in the frame of the RT2012 while it should supplant PV.
• Heat pumps with their major renewable contribution should be pushed in the frame of the RT 2020, whether they be geothermal or aerothermal.
• Bio-gas, a notable source of income for the rural sector, should be developed, making sure local resources are used, without infringing on arable land. It must be mainly used for thermal applications and not for electricity generation.

A gain larger than 3% in this sector within the next 10 years is unlikely.

Conclusion: Privilege the Main Thing

France is one of the OECD countries with the best record thanks to its nuclear and hydro power. However, the LTECV and the 2016/2023 PPE set multiple constraining objectives that aim at limiting the contribution of nuclear power (decreasing its contribution from 75% to 50%), although it does not emit CO₂, while allocating considerable monetary advantages (that lead to speculation) to solar and wind farms, which deploy mostly imported devices. The 2020 and 2030 targets for the development of renewable energies are not economically sustainable and would coerce drastic and expensive energy consumption reductions in the building and transportation sectors.

The constraints ordained and the associated costs, then, will weigh on households and industry (mostly SMBs), while the State's credibility will be depleted by a very foreseeable series of failures.

• The time has come to reorient our objectives and stimulate our assets (biomass, nuclear power, intelligent systems, electric mobility), favoring the most profitable and job creating actions in our more fragile sectors: reduce the carbon content of thermal energies, operate transfers to electricity (transportation and housing), renovate energy intensive buildings.
• Through training and R&D, enhance professionalism in the job creating sectors essential to the mitigation of climate change: renovation of older buildings, home automation, energy intelligence, biomass.
• Resist the development of a self-centered individualistic society (regional autonomy, self-consumption), dangerous from the social point of view, and of societal regulations that dismiss suburban and rural residents.

At the European level, true competition must be restored in the electricity sector, by eliminating aid for mature technologies, objects of speculation.

[1]     Translator's note: LTECV Loi de transition énergétique pour la croissance verte - French law published in August 2015 - defines the priorities for the French energy transition, it currently serves as a framework for the PPE (Programmation Pluriannuelle de l’énergie or multi-year energy programming).

[2]     Translator's note:  SNBC Stratégie nationale bas carbone - National Low Carbon Strategy, roadmap published in 2015 that defines the goals of the energy transition.

[3]     Translator's note: CGDD - Commissariat général au développement durable - Sustainable Development Agency (established in 2008) in charge of producing data and knowledge to inform and guide the government's energy department.

[4]     Translator's note: SOeS is a newsletter from the statistics section of the government energy department.

[5]     Translator's note: EDF - Eléctricité de France, the historic national electricity utility.

[6]     http://www.sauvonsleclimat.org/images/articles/pdf_files/climat-energie/Bases-politique-energetique-SLC-janvier-2018.pdf

[7]     https://www.sauvonsleclimat.org/images/articles/pdf_files/negatoe/Negatoe2017-complete-SLC.pdf

[8]     Translator's note: CSPE - Contribution au service public de l'électricité - Contribution to the electric power public service - a tax established in 2000 when the electricity sector was opened to competition. The tax is proportional to the electric bill, it is levied to meet public service obligations and, increasingly as their installed power rises, to support wind and PV power. 

[9]     Translator's note : INSEE - Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.

[10]     The Fessenheim plant avoids the emission of 6 million tonnes CO₂ per year.