{"id":423501,"date":"2026-02-13T11:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423501\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T11:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:36:10","slug":"france-slashes-renewable-energy-targets-expands-nuclear-power-with-new-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423501\/","title":{"rendered":"France slashes renewable energy targets, expands nuclear power with new law"},"content":{"rendered":"

France<\/a> set out a new energy<\/a> law after years of wrangling on Thursday which slashes its wind and solar power targets<\/a> and drops a mandate for state-run firm EDF<\/a> to shutter nuclear plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to stop \u200bour internal family \u200csquabbling. We need both nuclear and renewables,\u201d Finance Minister Roland Lescure told reporters.<\/p>\n

The law, to be \u2060pushed through by decree on Friday after almost three years of bitter disagreement among lawmakers, also reverses a previous legal mandate to shut 14 reactors.<\/p>\n

That was a 2017 campaign \u200cpromise of President Emmanuel Macron<\/a>, who later changed course, backing nuclear expansion with a plan for at \u2060least six new reactors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move to pare back renewables should help shield EDF, which operates a fleet of 57 reactors, as power demand grows more slowly than expected over the next decade. The company is struggling to \u200bremain competitive as abundant wind and solar in Europe have pushed down power prices and \u200cforced reactors to lower output.<\/p>\n

The new 10-year framework, known as the PPE, aims for EDF to produce 420 terawatt-hours of power from its existing fleet in 2035, a 5 percent increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cNuclear is the backbone of our electricity<\/a> system,\u201d said Lescure, adding that a first new reactor should \u200cbe inaugurated by 2038.<\/p>\n

Read moreFrance ‘far from ready’ to build six new nuclear reactors, audit body says<\/a><\/p>\n

EDF CEO Bernard Fontana welcomed the proposal, saying it would allow the company to advance toward its objectives. The law had triggered fierce debate among lawmakers pitting support \u200bfor renewable subsidies against financing new nuclear at a time when France is struggling with high debt. The PPE also governs wind and solar tenders, and a decision on the matter is expected to be welcomed by the wind industry, which \u200bhas struggled amid uncertainty over the plans and delayed tenders.<\/p>\n

Still, wind and solar targets were lowered, to 105-135 gigawatts (GW) of installed \u200bcapacity by 2035 from drafts that had called for 133-163 GW.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this PPE is \u200bmore than two years late on paper, it\u2019s at least a decade behind in its vision of an energy transition,\u201d Greenpeace<\/a> France said in a statement.<\/p>\n

It lowers France\u2019s 2035 target \u200bfor installed offshore wind capacity to 15 GW from 18 GW the government had submitted for consultation in 2024.<\/p>\n

The target for onshore wind capacity drops to 35-40 GW from the 45 GW previously communicated.<\/p>\n

Solar capacity will be 55-80 GW by 2035, the report added, down from a previous forecast of 75-100 GW.\u00a0 The law calls for France to consume 60 percent of its own energy \u2060from decarbonised electricity by 2030, shifting from 60 percent of energy from fossil fuels currently, and up to 70 percent from decarbonised electricity by 2035.<\/p>\n

The new law is unlikely \u2060to lead to lower \u200bprices for end-users, said Emeric de Vigan, managing director of energy consultancy 42 Advisors, adding this could keep them from switching to electricity from oil and gas-based fuels.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France set out a new energy law after years of wrangling on Thursday which slashes its wind and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[152705,2359,8731,1397,819,1215,22463,12636,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-423501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-edf","9":"tag-electricity","10":"tag-energy-security","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-law","14":"tag-nuclear-energy","15":"tag-renewable-energy","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}