Is France's energy renovation policy missing its objectives?

PrimesEnergie.fr, which is one of the main financiers of the sector (over €2010 billion in aid paid since 150.000), has analyzed and compared more than 2021 renovation sites supported in the first quarters of 2022, 2023 and XNUMX.

A drop from 80.057 sites supported in Q1 2021 to 27.269 sites in Q1 2023. This is the observation observed by PrimesEnergie.fr concerning the evolution of the number of energy renovation works carried out over the past three years. This sharp drop of 66% testifies to the current weak momentum: the French are carrying out less and less work. As a result, the total amount of aid donated also fell from €109.693.383 in Q1 2021 to €46.282.945 in the first quarter of 2023.

While the government has decided to favor "global renovations" generating maximum energy savings, these represent only 2,6% of energy renovation projects carried out in Q1 2023. However, they capture 39% of all the bonuses paid to the French. This political choice, to the detriment of "mono-gestures" (insulation of a roof, insulation of walls, installation of a high-performance condensing boiler), has two major consequences:

Aid now mainly benefits the wealthiest households

While in the first quarter of 2021, 63% of the total amount of premiums paid had benefited so-called "precarious or very precarious" households, the dynamic has been completely reversed. In Q1 2023, only 35% of the amounts were returned to households with the lowest incomes.

One explanation for this dynamic: the overall renovation of housing is expensive with a remaining charge reaching several thousand, even tens of thousands of euros. A prohibitive investment for households with the lowest incomes, all the more so in the current economic context.

The rise in the average premium hides major disparities

If the amount of the average premium paid to households increases (€1.697 in Q1 2023 compared to €1.331 in Q1 2021), this is mainly due to the ramp-up of global renovations. Some of the works hitherto favored by the French are seeing their premiums collapse:

• The insulation of a roof, alone responsible for 30% of heat loss from a home, has seen its premium drop by 49% since Q1 2021.
• The premium for wall insulation (20% of heat loss) drops by an average of 66%.
• The prize goes to high energy performance boilers, for which the premium is now €263 on average compared to €916 in 2021 (-71%).
• At the same time, the premium for a global renovation increases by 117% to reach €23.679.

For Nicolas Moulin, founder of PrimesEnergie.fr: “The energy transition must not turn into social injustice…”