French government hurries new wind power tariffs to re-ignite growth
London (Platts)--29May2014/719 am EDT/1119 GMT
The French government will implement in coming days a new tariff for
onshore wind power, approved by the European Commission, which should
remove a major deterrent to investment, energy minister Segolene Royal
said late Wednesday.
The move follows the cancellation Wednesday by France's Council of State
of the previous tariff decree set in 2008 -- widely expected after an
initial verdict by the public magistrate earlier this month.
French anti-wind lobby Vent De Colere (wind of anger) and 11 other
groups had filed appeals saying the subsidised rates were not correctly
submitted to the European Commission as state support.
The government's decision to replace the tariffs, and back-date them,
"puts an end to a long period of uncertainty which was destabilising the
sector" and will mean that new projects will benefit from the same
state-supported prices, Royal said.
"Renewable power must increase in importance and new tenders will soon
be launched," she added.
SER, France's renewable industry association, has said the firmer legal
status of the tariffs should allow for a pickup in connections this
year.
France had 8.1 GW of wind power capacity at the end of December after
installing just 630 MW of new projects in 2013.
This compares with 33.7 GW of wind capacity in Germany, 23.0 GW in Spain
and 10.5 GW in UK, according to figures from the European Wind Energy
Association.
In anticipation of the Council of State's verdict, the French government
resubmitted its onshore wind tariffs to the European Commission
classifying them as state aid, and these were approved by the EC on
March 27, 2014.
The French government is planning to implement later this year new
incentive mechanisms for renewable power which would see plants receive
a wholesale market plus premium price for output.
Tariff rates would be continued in parallel with the new market-based
mechanism.
--Robin Sayles, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Jeremy Lovell,
jeremy.lovell@platts.com
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