Country policy profile - France. December 2015

The European Union has set the goal of meeting 20% of its final energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020. This ambition is reflected by a target of 23% for France, with a specific targets for heat (geothermal, biomass, solar, heat pumps, renewable portion of waste) of 33%, electricity 27% and transport 10.5%. The state support for the deployment of renewable energy must also meet a goal of development of competitive industrial sectors, accompanying targeted manner and taking account of our comparative advantages to economic maturity. Public support for renewable sectors is indeed necessary to accompany them to the technological and economic maturity so that they become competitive. Public support should as such help to facilitate the lifting of various technical and economic locks with a view to reducing the costs of these technologies, appropriately according to their stage of development from R and D to industrialization. France has set up industry-specific incentives: In the field of heat, the main tools are for individual residential sector, Tax Credit for Sustainable Development, Eco loan at a zero percent interest rate (PTZ), Certificates of Energy Savings. For the other sectors (tertiary, collectivity, industry), the Heat Fund mission is to finance projects for an energy production of 5.5 Mtoe. It has about euro 220 million per year, and its management is delegated to the ADEME. The Government announced on 1 July 2014 that the endowment fund of heat would be doubled by 2017. In the transport sector, the main tools to support renewable energies are the General Tax on Polluting Activities (TGAP) which helps to encourage the uptake and distribution of bio-fuels by penalizing those who place a consumer less than the proportion of bio-fuels threshold, and a reduced bio-fuels from taxation of approved facilities. In the field of electricity, the development of renewable energy power is supported by two complementary systems: feed-in tariffs and tenders