Tuesday 23 October 2018

EU approves €200m French state aid for renewable energy

The European Commission has approved a €200 million (£176m) scheme that supports electricity production from renewable energy sources for self-consumption in France.

The initiative is designed to encourage the production of green power by businesses and individuals for their own use, specifically for instances where only a limited part of the electricity they produce is sold to the grid.

The funding is available for small installations with a capacity between 100kW and 500kW – supporting the deployment of 490MW in total.

Those receiving the funding will be selected through tenders organised until 2020 and all renewable energy technologies can participate.

The Commission said the scheme will further the EU’s energy and climate objectives without distorting competition in the Single Market.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy added: “This scheme will stimulate competition between renewable energy sources for self-suppliers and will further increase the share of renewables in France’s energy mix. The technology-neutral tenders will contribute to France’s transition to low carbon and environmentally friendly sustainable energy supply, in line with the EU environmental objectives and our state aid rules.”