On Monday 12 December, the European Commission approved four French schemes in favour of the production of electricity from renewable sources by granting a purchase tariff or top-up remuneration to a number of plants (those using energy extracted from geothermal fields, those of less than 500 kW using biogas produced from methane, hydraulic installations of less than one megawatt and wind-power plants having applied for top-up aid in 2016).
The total provisional budget of this aid stands at €7.681 billion up to 2042. The aid will help France to achieve renewable energies targets, by promoting the deployment of an additional renewable energy production capacity in the region of 2148 MW.
The four aid regimes will be paid for out of the "Energy Transition" special account, which was initially created in 2016 from domestic tax on the final consumption of electricity. As of 1 January 2017, this will be funded by a proportion of the domestic tax on coal, lignite, coke and a proportion of the domestic consumption tax on oil products etc. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)