France wants to make its public buildings less energy-intensive

Connection to the district heating network rather than gas boilers at the Palais de Chaillot (museum and performance hall in Paris), photovoltaic panels on the roofs of the University of Toulon in the south of the country, insulation of the attic of the customs building in Papeete , in French Polynesia, for less air conditioning: with these projects, the government hopes to be able to save each year the equivalent of the domestic consumption of a city of 50.000 inhabitants from the winter of 2023-2024.

While the executive deployed a sobriety plan in the fall aimed at reducing France's energy consumption by 10% in two years, and by 40% by 2050, "the State must d 'be exemplary both in the short term but also in the long term, to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions,' the government said in a press release sent to AFP on Tuesday.

He recalls that building is the main energy-consuming sector in France, generating around a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.

This call for projects is the second of its kind, after the selection of 800 projects in the spring of 2022 for 50 million euros, making it possible to save the consumption of a city of 25.000 inhabitants annually.

"It's a double movement" combining "renovation of the building" and "change of uses", we explain to the Ministry of Energy Transition. "If we renovate a building while putting the heating at 25 degrees, the operation is not really successful," we add.

These measures have reduced the electricity consumption of public buildings by 8% between October 2022 and January 2023, and by around 11% for gas, according to the same source.

Since 2019, the government has invested 3,9 billion euros to renovate public buildings. For tertiary buildings, including those of the State, it also intends to reduce energy consumption by 40% by 2030 and by 60% by 2050.