It is important for policymakers in the EU to control the types of biomass feedstock used – and supported by policy frameworks – in order to limit negative impacts on the climate.
France
Table 7: Key renewable and biomass energy statistics, France
|
Electricity from biomass |
Heating and cooling from biomass |
% of total energy |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mtoe |
% of total electricity |
% of ren electricity |
Mtoe |
% of total heat/cool |
% of ren heat/cool |
Biomass |
All renewables |
|
|
2009 |
0.11 |
0.2% |
1.6% |
8.28 |
12.4% |
81.9% |
5.4% |
12.3% |
|
2016 |
0.26 |
0.6% |
3.1% |
9.82 |
15.7% |
74.4% |
6.5% |
16.0% |
|
Annual average growth |
13.9% |
2.5% |
2.7% |
3.8% |
||||
|
2020 target |
23.0% |
|||||||
Source: Eurostat SHARES database, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/energy/data/shares.
Note: Biomass as percentage of total energy does not include solid biomass used for transport fuel (volumes are not yet significant).
Demand for woody biomass
France is the second largest consumer of biomass for power and heat in the EU, behind only Germany, and the largest consumer of biomass for heat, mostly in the residential and industrial sectors.78 A government target set in 2013 was to increase consumption of biomass for heat to 16.6 Mtoe by 2020,79 including increasing the number of households served from 7.4 million to about 9 million.80
In 2012–13, the combustion of black liquor by industry accounted for about half of total consumption of energy from woody biomass.81 In contrast, biomass plays only a small role in electricity generation. Although France generated 19 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources in 2016, the vast majority of this was from hydro and wind; almost all the remaining power generation was from France’s large fleet of nuclear stations.
France is currently on track to meets its Renewable Energy Directive target of 23 per cent of energy from renewables by 2020. Under the Energy Transition for Green Growth Act of 2015 (drawn up among others by the then economy and industry minister, Emmanuel Macron) this target was increased further to 32 per cent by 2030.82 Alongside a reduction of the share of nuclear power in electricity generation from 75 per cent to 50 per cent by 2025, and an increase in energy efficiency (a fall of 50 per cent in total energy consumption from 2012 to 2050), the policy aimed to increase renewables to 40 per cent of electricity generation, 38 per cent of final heat consumption, 15 per cent of final transport fuel consumption and 10 per cent of gas consumption by 2030. The expansion of renewable electricity was expected to come mainly from wind and solar PV, but thanks to its dominant role in heating, solid biomass was expected to continue to provide the largest share in the renewable energy mix at least until 2020.83
In July 2017, the new administration of President Macron unveiled a Climate Plan aiming to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
In July 2017, the new administration of President Macron unveiled a Climate Plan aiming to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.84 This included a commitment to raise the carbon tax (see below).
Biomass supply
France is one of the EU’s leading producers of roundwood, producing over 51 million m3 (under bark) in 2016. Approximately half of that volume – 26 million m3 – was used as wood fuel, a much higher proportion than in most other EU member states.85
Accordingly, woody biomass has been, and is expected to remain, the dominant source of biomass used for energy; the use of agricultural residues is not currently significant.86 Most of the wood is used for heat in decentralized units, such as residential boilers and stoves.87 Small amounts of wood pellets are used in small-scale private and industrial boilers; in 2016, the country produced 1.15 million tonnes of wood pellets, mostly for domestic end use.88 Smaller amounts are imported, though volumes have fluctuated considerably during the last few years. During 2016, imports doubled to about 300,000 tonnes (the US having joined Belgium as the leading supplier), while exports (mainly to Italy) remained at roughly 200,000 tonnes. Exports of wood fuel are more substantial, at about 500,000 tonnes a year, predominantly to Belgium (see figures 12 and 13).
Figure 12: France’s imports of woody biomass potentially for energy, 2010–16
— Source: Generated from Eurostat data at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/newxtweb/mainxtnet.do.
Note: Wood chips and residues are not only used for energy generation.
Note: Wood chips and residues are not only used for energy generation.
Figure 12: France’s imports of woody biomass potentially for energy, 2010–16
Note: Wood chips and residues are not only used for energy generation.
Figure 13: France’s exports of woody biomass potentially for energy, 2010–16
— Source: Generated from Eurostat data at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/newxtweb/mainxtnet.do.
Note: Wood chips and residues are not only used for energy generation.
Note: Wood chips and residues are not only used for energy generation.
Figure 13: France’s exports of woody biomass potentially for energy, 2010–16
Note: Wood chips and residues are not only used for energy generation.
The government views the country’s forest resources as under-exploited but difficult to mobilize, and has set out the aim of increasing future biomass supply for energy by 3–5.4 Mtoe by 2020.89 A further 1 Mtoe of agricultural and agri-food residues, such as straw and seeds, may also be possible. Significant growth in imports is not anticipated.
However, concerns have been expressed over the sustainability of biomass and its impacts on land use and on the local environment. This has been triggered in particular by Uniper’s conversion of one of the units at the coal power station at Gardanne, near Aix-en-Provence, to burn biomass, with government subsidy, creating France’s largest biomass power plant. Unit four of the plant, which started test operation in 2016, has a capacity of 150 MW of electricity and was expected to need 850,000 tonnes of feedstock per year. This was expected initially to be supplied from imports (including from Brazil) and local supplies, increasing over time to be 100 per cent locally sourced; half was expected to come from virgin timber and the rest from thinnings and wood residues.
Opponents took the case to court on the grounds that an inadequate assessment of the impact on local forests and other forest industries, such as pulp and paper, had been carried out; though national and local government, and trade unions, defended the project because of its potential for employment in a region once heavily dependent on coal. In June 2017, the administrative court in Marseille ruled that the company’s impact study had indeed failed to take into consideration impacts on local forests, given the plant’s projected consumption of 37 per cent of the forest resources within a 250 km radius, and cancelled the plant’s operating licence. A week later, however, the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône granted a stay to the plant, suspending temporarily the Marseille court’s ruling.90 The issue has yet to be resolved.
Support for biomass energy
The development of biomass energy in France has been strongly supported by the government, particularly in the heating sector. Biomass in power generation is supported through premiums on the market price and energy saving certificates, while biomass in heat consumption receives financial support through the Heat Fund and tax credits. In addition, the ‘Dynamic Bois’ initiative finances the mobilization of wood energy feedstock from privately and publicly owned forests, and taxation of carbon creates a general incentive to favour renewables over fossil fuels.
Biomass in power generation is supported through premiums on the market price and energy saving certificates, while biomass in heat consumption receives financial support through the Heat Fund and tax credits.
Until 2016 renewable electricity generation was mainly supported through the obligation to purchase power from renewable sources. Small biomass combustion and CHP plants with capacity between 2 MW and 12 MW were given a purchase price, guaranteed for 20 years, of €0.043 per kilowatt hour (kWh), with an optional bonus of €0.077–0.125 per kWh depending on the plant’s efficiency performance and resources used.91 For larger plants, support was delivered through auctions, managed by the Energy Regulation Commission; the average unit cost of support for biomass plants in 2011 was €59 per MWh.92 The new support scheme being introduced from 2016, however, began phasing out the purchase obligation and limited the duration of support to 10 years; premium tariffs are to be allocated through a quasi-tendering process, where energy producers compete against each other for feed-in premium support.93 Very small plants, less than 500 kilowatt (kW) capacity, will retain the old feed-in-tariff scheme.
The energy saving certificate scheme, introduced in 2006, requires all energy suppliers (power and heat) to reduce energy consumption among their customers; in October 2014, the government launched the third round of certificates, for 2015–17.94
The Heat Fund (‘Fonds Chaleur’), established in 2009, is the main mechanism supporting biomass heat consumption.95 It provides subsidies to renewable heat consumption, with the aim of ensuring that the price of renewable heat is about 5 per cent lower than conventional heat.96 Eligible forms of biomass include wood, wood waste and residues, agricultural waste, industrial waste, and biodegradable products; imported wood can be used as long as it is temporary and limited in volume, and accompanied by an environmental evaluation. Funding ranges from €16 per toe to €95 per toe, depending on production capacity. In April 2015, the Energy Transition for Green Growth Act doubled the fund’s budget to €420 million by 2017.97 Between 2009 and 2016, the Heat Fund supported more than 1,000 small-scale installations in the housing and industrial sectors, reaching a total annual output of 1.4 Mtoe. Support for larger facilities (greater than 1,000 toe per year), through BCIAT (Biomass Heat Industry Agriculture Tertiaire), led to over 100 installations over the same period, accounting for 0.57 Mtoe of heat output.98
In addition, the Thermal Regulation Scheme that began to operate at the beginning of 2013 introduced measures to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy use in all new buildings.
The 2015 Energy Transition for Green Growth Act also launched a call (‘Dynamic bois’) for expressions of interest from private forest owners to provide support in mobilizing wood resources for energy, in association with the Heat Fund.99 In 2015, €35 million was provided for 24 projects with the aim of mobilizing 4 million m³ of wood, mostly to be used in heating plants covered under the Heat Fund.100 In 2016, a second Dynamic Bois call was launched to both private and public forest owners with a total budget of €20 million.101 By August 2016, it was reported that 19 projects had been selected.102
The government also provides an energy transition tax credit (‘Le crédit d’impôt transition énergétique’) to promote the adoption of more efficient heating equipment in households.103 Eligible equipment includes heating appliances operating on wood and other biomass. For heating or hot water production, the equipment must have an energy conversion efficiency of more than 70 per cent, and for biomass boilers at least 80 per cent. Any taxpayer is eligible to receive the tax credit, which amounts to €8,000 per person.104
In 2014, France introduced a carbon component (called a ‘climate-energy contribution’) into its existing structure of energy taxes on petrol, diesel and heating oil and consumption taxes on coal, gas and electricity.105 The climate-energy contribution was introduced at a relatively low rate, alongside various exemptions and compensatory measures for industry and agriculture and low-income households, and was intended to rise steadily in the future. The 2015 Energy Transition Act increased it further, with the objective of reaching €100 per tonne of carbon dioxide by 2030. In 2017, the Macron government announced further rises, from €30.50 per tonne in 2017 to €44.60 in 2018, with further annual increases of about €10 a tonne, reaching €86.20 in 2022.106 The revenue has been used to reduce taxation on employment and energy-saving measures, and direct compensation for low-income households.
Sustainability criteria
As noted, large-scale renewable energy, including biomass, is supported through tenders: companies bid for contracts to supply renewable energy at a set price above market rates. The sustainability criteria are set out in each call for tender; from 2016, they include sustainable forest management requirements (which can be met by FSC or PEFC-certified products), limits on emissions of particulates and nitrogen oxide, and a conversion efficiency of at least 75 per cent, which in practice rules out anything other than CHP plants. In addition, roundwood is not eligible. (These rules would have significantly affected the Gardanne biomass plant if they had been in place when the conversion began in 2012; not only is the plant sourcing roundwood, it is also an electricity-only station, with a conversion efficiency well below 75 per cent.)
78 Commissariat Général au Développement Durable (2015), Chiffres clés des énergies renouvelables: Édition 2015, http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Rep_-_Chiffres_cles_energies_renouvelables.pdf (accessed 10 Aug. 2016); ADEME (2016), ‘Le Fonds Chaleur en bref’, http://www.ademe.fr/expertises/energies-renouvelables-reseaux-stockage/passer-a-laction/produire-chaleur/fonds-chaleur-bref (accessed 10 Aug. 2016).
79 ADEME (2013), Etudes sur le chauffage domestique au bois: marches et approvisionnement, http://ademe.typepad.fr/files/synth%C3%A8se-etude-chauffage-domestique-au-bois.pdf (accessed 10 Aug. 2016).
80 Ministère de l’Environnement, de l’Énergie et de la Mer (2015), ‘Politique de développement des énergies renouvelables en France’, http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/Politique-de-developpement-des,13554.html (accessed 10 Aug. 2016).
81 Based on Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Répartition de la consommation de combustibles par usage en milliers de tonnes-équivalent-pétrole (kTEP) selon la nomenclature des activités consommatrices, http://www.insee.fr/fr/ppp/bases-de-donnees/irweb/irecoeacei13/dd/excel/irecoeacei13_nce_T3.xls (accessed 13 Aug. 2016); Consommation d’énergie en milliers de tonnes-équivalent-pétrole (kTEP) selon la région, http://www.insee.fr/fr/ppp/bases-de-donnees/irweb/irecoeacei13/dd/excel/irecoeacei13_reg_T1.xls (accessed 13 Aug. 2016).
82 Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (2015), Energy Transition for Green Growth Act: User guide for the act and its attendant actions, Paris: Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/14123-8-GB_loi-TE-mode-emploi_DEF_light.pdf (accessed 13 Aug. 2016).
83 Deloitte Conseil (2015), European energy market reform Country profile: France, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Energy-and-Resources/gx-er-merket-reform-france.pdf (accessed 10 Aug. 2016).
84 Government of France (2017), ‘Climate Plan’, http://www.gouvernement.fr/en/climate-plan (accessed 24 Jan. 2018).
85 Eurostat data at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/forestry/data/database.
86 Commissariat général au développement durable (2015), Chiffres clés des énergies renouvelables: Édition 2015.
87 European Commission (2015), Renewable Energy Progress Report, Brussels: European Commission, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:4f8722ce-1347-11e5-8817-01aa75ed71a1.0001.02/DOC_1&format=PDF (accessed 10 Aug. 2016).
88 FAOSTAT data at http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FO.
89 European Commission (2012), ‘National Renewable Energy Action Plan: France’.
90 Enerdata (2017), ‘Uniper gets stay for Gardanne biomass-fired power plant in France’, 13 June 2017, https://www.enerdata.net/publications/daily-energy-news/uniper-gets-stay-gardanne-biomass-fired-power-plant-france.html (accessed 24 Jan. 2018).
91 La République Française (2016), ‘Loi n° 2000-108 du 10 février 2000 relative à la modernisation et au développement du service public de l’électricité’, https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000750321 (accessed 11 Aug. 2016); Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (2013), Report on progress in the promotion and use of energy from renewable sources, Paris: Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, http://www.eurobserv-er.org/pdf/res-policy/EurObservER-RES-Policy-Report-Article-22-France-report-EN.pdf (accessed 9 Aug. 2016).
92 Ibid.
93 Eurobserv’ER (2017), Renewable Energy Policy Factsheet: France, https://www.eurobserv-er.org/pdf/renewable-energy-policy-factsheet-2017-france/ (accessed 24 Jan. 2018).
94 Eurobserv’ER (2015), Country policy profile: France.
95 ADEME (2016), ‘Le Fonds Chaleur en bref’.
96 Eurobserv’ER (2015), Country policy profile: France.
97 ADEME (2016), Fonds chaleurs 2016 – Secteur biomasse: Fiche descriptive et d’instruction, Paris: ADEME, http://www.ademe.fr/sites/default/files/assets/documents/biomasse_fds_chal_mai_2016_23-05-16.pdf (accessed 11 Aug. 2016).
98 Eurobserv’ER (2017), Solid Biomass Barometer.
99 Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (2015), Energy Transition for Green Growth Act.
100 Ministère de l’Environnement, de l’Énergie et de la Mer (2016), La transition énergétique pour la croissance verte: Dynamic Bois, Paris: Ministère de l’Environnement, de l’Énergie et de la Mer, http://www2.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/DYNAMIC-Bois-24-projets.html (accessed 11 Aug. 2016).
101 Ministère de l’Environnement, de l’Énergie et de la Mer (2016), ‘Appel à manifestations d’intérêts Dynamic Bois’, http://www.ademe.fr/sites/default/files/assets/documents/dynamic-bois-2016.pdf (accessed 11 Aug. 2016).
102 Charpentier, M. (2016), ‘Dynamic Bois: 19 nouveaux projets retenus’, ActuEnvironnement, 4 August 2016, http://www.actu-environnement.com/ae/news/fonds-chaleur-dynamic-bois-projets-retenus-27316.php4 (accessed 11 Aug. 2016).
103 European Commission (2012), ‘National Renewable Energy Action Plan: France’.
104 Ministère de l’Environnement, de l’Énergie et de la Mer (2016), ‘Le crédit d’impôt transition énergétique’, http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/Le-credit-d-impot-transition (accessed 11 Aug. 2016).
105 Rocamora, A. (2017), The Rise of Carbon Taxation in France: from Environmental Protection to Low-Carbon Transition. Kanagawa, Japan:Institute for Global Environment Strategies, https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0ahUKEwjPr4 3zpqPaAhWDLMAKHRPYDRUQFggrMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpub.iges.or.jp%2Fpub_file-246%2Fdownload&usg=AOvVaw2Egie4zHo6i0B htCe-hfjG (accessed 24 Jan. 2018).
106 Reuters (2017), ‘France raises carbon taxes, to repay EDF renewables debt’, 27 September 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-budget-carbon/france-raises-carbon-taxes-to-repay-edf-renewables-debt-idUSKCN1C21DL (accessed 24 Jan. 2018).