The Livret A savings account could finance the most competitive renewable energy projects, suggests a report

Large-scale renewable energy (RE) projects with the most competitive production costs could be financed by the Livret A savings account, as planned by the government for future nuclear reactors, according to a report submitted to the government on Thursday, April 9, and consulted by AFP.

"The State could ensure that part of the financing for certain RES projects is provided by the savings funds of the Caisse des dépôts et consignations (+Livret A+), which would reduce the cost of the debt borne by the projects," write the authors of this report.

Jean-Bernard Lévy, former CEO of EDF (2014-2022), and senior civil servant Thierry Tuot, State Councillor and former Director General of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), were tasked in December by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu with assessing the cost of renewable energies for public finances and their impact on the electricity system.

According to them, such a scheme could be offered to the winners of projects whose cost per megawatt-hour (MWh) produced "is the most competitive, in practice (...) large-scale projects" - onshore wind, solar and "particularly" offshore wind turbines.

This recommendation is one of 45 in this report on "optimizing public support for renewable electricity and storage." A sensitive issue: the cost of wind and solar energy has been at the heart of heated debates in recent months on France's energy strategy between pro-renewables and pro-nuclear parliamentarians.

According to the authors, state aid for photovoltaics and wind power has increased from 2,6 billion euros in 2024 to 5,3 billion in 2025 and at least 6,8 billion in 2026.

And these subsidies "could in the next 5 years reach, or even exceed, an annual cost of 10 billion euros for the State", they estimate.

To reduce this cost, they advocate encouraging electricity production marketed through private contractual agreements (Power purchase agreement, PPA) with an insurance system implemented by the State, to reduce the volume of hours at negative prices, when production exceeds demand, which weighs on public finances.

It is also "essential" to increase battery storage capacity to compensate for the variability of wind and solar power and thus "increase the efficiency of public support for these energies".

Messrs. Lévy and Tuot, on the other hand, point out that the processing times for projects increase costs, particularly in comparison with neighboring countries.

"Installations as competitive as those of our neighbors would reduce direct public support by more than one billion euros each year," they write.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.