France announces Measures for Biogas

The government announced on Friday two additional measures to accelerate the production of biogas in France, including a revaluation of the purchase rate against inflation.

At the end of June, 442 installations, mostly agricultural methanizers, were injecting renewable methane into the natural gas networks, resulting from the fermentation of organic matter (food waste, liquid manure, dedicated crops…).

Their total production capacity is 7.6 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year, or +18% compared to the end of 2021, the Ministry of Energy Transition said Friday. But France wants to increase the share of renewables to at least 10% of its gas consumption by 2030, compared to about 2% today.

To achieve this, a regulatory measure was announced on Friday, introducing an increase in the biomethane purchase price to take account of inflation.

This measure aims to absorb the sharp increase in construction costs of new facilities to preserve the economic balance, with an indexation on inflation observed at the time of signing the purchase contract, explains the ministry in a statement.

Another measure, requested by the sector, is an extension of the deadline for the commissioning of projects whose procedures have been completed but whose construction is behind schedule. This decree aims to relaunch certain projects that are currently halted, by granting them an extension of the commissioning deadline of up to 18 months.

“The accelerated and supervised deployment of renewable gases will be key to achieving our climate and energy sovereignty goals,” commented Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

“Everything must be implemented to massively develop renewable energy, pillars of our strategy alongside sobriety and energy efficiency, and the revival of nuclear power,” she added, repeating the elements detailed the day before by Emmanuel Macron in Saint-Nazaire on the occasion of a visit to the very first offshore wind farm in France.

In particular, a bill to accelerate solar and wind power is to be presented Monday in the Council of Ministers. For example, it plans to plan the deployment of future offshore wind farms or to tighten the timetables of procedures. An amendment is to be added at a later date, designed to encourage the development of agrivoltaics, the installation of solar panels on agricultural land.