France

Overall assessment

France’s REPowerEU recovery plan is weak in what concerns facilitating the action of energy communities. Its main pillar on renewables is the recent law on accelerating renewable energy production, which is not up to the challenges of renewables production and of energy communities in particular. Simplification measures are very weak. Other provisions might indeed slow down the development of new renewables, such as the definition of acceleration and exclusion zones. The lack of clarity around the criteria on what constitutes each zone might delay renewables project development overall. Existing obstacles concerning local government investment in renewables have not been addressed.

There is an interesting measure concerning the obligation for big renewable installations to finance energy transition, energy poverty or biodiversity projects but the text remains very poor concerning local ownership or support schemes adapted to the needs of community energy and energy communities.