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Biofuels France clean energy investment program

Published on August 19th, 2010 | by Zachary Shahan

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France Launches €1.35 Billion Clean Energy Program

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August 19th, 2010 by Zachary Shahan 

France clean energy investment program

The French government announced a huge investment package for renewable energy last week, totaling €1.35 billion ($1.73 billion). The money is to be invested over the next 4 years.

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The program is called “demonstrateurs energies renouvelables et chimie verte,” which in English would mean “renewable energy and green chemistry demonstration.” It will include €450 million ($577 million) in subsidies and another €900 million ($1.15 billion) in low-interest loans for “cutting-edge technology projects.”

The emerging, cutting-edge technologies it would be supporting projects in solar energy, marine energy, geothermal energy, carbon capture and storage, and advanced biofuel.

This is quite a surprise, to me at least, since France has traditionally put so much of its “clean energy” money into nuclear energy and, to some extent, wind energy.

About €190 million ($244 million) is supposed to be invested by the end of the year, and then €290 million ($372 million) every year afterwards until 2014.

The French government is, reportedly, looking to get private investors to put in €2 billion ($2.56 billion) as well.

And, Bloomberg reports that beyond this clean energy investment program, the French government is looking to similar programs for green transport (a €1 billion or $1.28 billion program) and smart grid demonstrations (a €250 million or $320.5 million program).

I looks like France is aiming to up its green credentials quite a bit, and also diversify its green investment, to continue on its track as a leader in addressing two of the main causes of global warming — electricity generation and transportation.

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Photo Credit: FrenchSelfCatering.com via flickr

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About the Author

spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.


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  • Mike Siani-Rose

    Dear Mr. Shahan,

    How about more detail in your articles? I’m a Chemical Engineer in the Biotechnology industry and find your articles to be short on explanation. For example, your graph on “inland energy consumption” does not explain what this is. You compare two different pie charts, saying “Another thing I found interesting was how much more the % of gross inland oil consumption (below) diverted from gross inland oil production (in graph at the top).” To the technical lay person (me), your point is not clear. Please define the terms and spell things out for your readers. Also, please take this as a constructive criticism – I’d like more information!!!

    Thank you,

    Mike

    • http://www.zacharyshahan.com Zachary Shahan

      @Mike: thank you for the constructive criticism. i will try to be sure to do so

  • Rif

    France actually progress very well in renewable energy but we do not hear much about it here. We see lots of news about wind energy in Britain and that is great, but actually in each year 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 France installed more wind energy capacity than Britain.

    Another field where there are lots of activity in France is in electrical car development. Renault and PSA (Citroën/Peugeot) are close to introducing electrical car models. This is of course not going to be an instant success but it is good to get starting now, so ca. 2015 improved, long running and (somewhat) affordable EV will be available for the main market.

  • Hephaestus

    I think ($173 billion). should be ($1.73 billion).

    • http://www.zacharyshahan.com Zachary Shahan

      yes, of course :D Thank you for catching it, Hephaestus — that would be a killer transfer rate, wouldn’t it!

  • http://www.webhostinglogic.com Hippy Hop

    That is good news for the environment. I hope that money will be put into good projects and not one of those run on the mill one. I do also hope other industrialized countries follow suit.

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