The law on France's energy future is being scrutinized in the Senate, against a backdrop of government discord.

The bill by Republican Senator Daniel Gremillet (Vosges) has certainly had a chaotic journey through Parliament: adopted in the Senate on first reading in October, then rejected in the National Assembly at the end of June, it has now been buffeted by the recent spats of arms at the top of the State.

The government coalition has been weakened by the head-on opposition between the Macronist camp and the right, since the leader of the Republicans - and Minister of the Interior - Bruno Retailleau published an article in Le Figaro in which he called for an end to "public subsidies" for wind and photovoltaic power.

This was enough to spark the disapproval of some of his government colleagues, including Industry Minister Marc Ferracci, who assured Europe 1 and CNews on Tuesday that "certain renewable energies, onshore wind power in particular, are as competitive (...) as existing nuclear power."

Senatorial inspiration

Prime Minister François Bayrou and President Emmanuel Macron have also called for discipline in recent days.

The debates at the Luxembourg Palace will allow everyone to reiterate their position.

The Republicans are there in force, and the most astute observers of Parliament have not forgotten that Bruno Retailleau's name is among the main signatories of the bill, tabled when he was still a member of the Senate.

"There is absolutely no contradiction between Bruno Retailleau's article and the proposed law, because the financing of renewable energy falls under the finance bill. This is where choices will have to be made," insisted LR Senator Alain Cadec, co-rapporteur on the text debated Tuesday.

For this vote expected late Tuesday evening, the Senate holds the cards, following the rejection of the entire text by the National Assembly.

The text had been distorted during the debates, notably at the initiative of the National Rally and the Republicans: an amendment by the latter establishing a moratorium on wind and solar energy had lit the fuse, convincing the groups of the former Macronist majority to vote against the entire text.

On second reading, this provision can no longer be debated due to the rules of parliamentary procedure.

Waiting for the PPE

The Senate was not in favor of it in any case, even though it voted in committee for an amendment specifying, on land-based wind power, the need to "give priority to the renewal of existing installations" rather than the establishment of new projects.

Following Bruno Retailleau's platform, another amendment will be submitted on Tuesday evening to ask the government for an assessment of the financing of various forms of energy, particularly renewable energy.

For this second reading, the senators also chose to condense the bill by deleting a dozen articles, or about a third of the text, prioritizing the programmatic aspect over simplification measures. The objective: to speed up the parliamentary process.

A consensus seems to be emerging between the Senate, the National Assembly and the government on the two key articles of the text.

On the one hand, on the massive revival of nuclear power, including the construction of 14 new reactors; on the other hand, on the growth of renewable energies, with the objective of increasing, by 2030, the share of decarbonized energy in energy consumption in France to at least 58%, compared to around 40% currently.

This law, criticized by a large part of the left, should inspire the government in the finalization of its multi-year energy program (PPE), the energy trajectory that it intends to publish soon by decree.

The senators, led by their president Gérard Larcher, hope that the government will wait for the text to be returned to the Assembly at the end of September before publishing its decree, which must confirm the break with the previous PPE adopted in 2020, marked at the time by the closure of 14 reactors.

Supporters of all-nuclear power versus renewables

Senators are discussing the Gremillet bill on France's energy trajectory on Tuesday, at a time when supporters of all-nuclear power, both on the right and the far right, want to weaken renewables.

The government advocates using both to reduce dependence on fossil fuels—oil and gas—which are expensive to import (over €64 billion in 2024), warm the planet, and force us to rely on other countries. A look back at the main criticisms of renewable energy.

What are the criticisms of wind and solar power?

Their intermittency: Without wind or sun, renewable energies (RE) do not produce electricity. And conversely, when demand is too low, they can generate surpluses, sometimes accompanied by negative prices.

Producers must then pay to inject their electricity into the grid, while the state must purchase it at a pre-set price, which puts a strain on its finances. To limit this cost, offshore wind turbines will now have to shut down during periods of negative prices.

Other solutions exist: the evolution of off-peak/peak hours, as planned from this autumn, and battery storage, still in its infancy, to absorb surplus production.

Opponents of renewables also claim that their excessive development would risk a blackout, as in Spain at the end of April - but this theory has not been confirmed by the Spanish government.

They also argue that the rise in renewable energy does not allow EDF to optimize its nuclear fleet.

Finally, they claim that they are rejected by the French. But according to an April Ifop poll conducted for Engie, a renewable energy producer, solar power is viewed favorably by 89% of French people and wind power by 78%.

Battle over cost

The National Rally estimates the development of renewable energy at 300 billion euros in the next energy program 2025-2035: more than 100 billion in subsidies and 200 billion for their connection to the network.

The State does guarantee a purchase price for green electricity to ensure the profitability of the projects, which represents public support of 100 billion euros, but this is "a maximalist estimate" spread "until 2060," according to François Bayrou.

For their part, the managers RTE and Enedis have initiated investment plans of 100 and 96 billion euros respectively by 2040, to adapt electricity networks to climate hazards and support the decarbonization of the economy.

As part of this, RTE will allocate 53 billion to connecting future offshore wind farms, as well as new nuclear reactors, factories, and data centers. For Enedis, of the 96 billion planned, only 10 billion are dedicated to renewable energy.

Can nuclear power be the answer to everything?

Reactors produce more than 65% of the electricity generated in France, but nuclear power also has weaknesses.

In 2022, the stress corrosion crisis forced the shutdown of many reactors for repairs or inspections, threatening France with power outages.

During heat waves, which are more frequent with global warming, production must sometimes be reduced to comply with the temperature and flow thresholds of the watercourses used to cool the reactors.

And while the "historical" nuclear power has now been fully amortized, the EPR2 program, which plans to build six new reactors, has already seen its projected bill soar by 30%, from 51,7 to 67,4 billion euros, and the commissioning of the first reactor has been postponed from 2035 to 2038.

In a January report, the Court of Auditors expressed skepticism about the credibility of the program in view of previous cost overruns and delays in EDF's EPR construction sites.

The Flamanville (Manche) plant was connected to the electricity grid at the end of 2024, twelve years late and with a total bill of 19,3 billion euros under 2015 conditions, according to EDF, i.e. six times the initial estimate.

Then there's the matter of nuclear waste management. The Cigéo project to bury the most radioactive waste in Bure (Meuse) could cost more than the 25 billion previously estimated, according to the French National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra). And the Court of Auditors recently warned of the urgent need to find a storage solution for the low-level radioactive waste accumulated over the decades.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.