These days I'm pretty obsessed with House of cards. If you haven't heard of it, it is a politic series. There's a another show I enjoyed a lot, is Borgen, a danish serie. The recurrent themes of those shows are lobbies, media, rumor, manipulations, schemes. I think this isn't too far from reality.
Our business is still suffering from the French government decisions, we are victims of political schemes and nuclear lobbies once again. The state-owned energy provider is taking action to suppress any growth of green energy in France. French authority likes to say that our energy is the cheapest in Europe. At what cost you think? By preventing green energy to develop, and de facto destroying jobs. Also, French government often deploys armed forces in Africa, not so much for freedom and helping out Africans, but to secure their uranium (for nuclear plants).
Whether we vote for the left or the right wing here, the story repeats itself. We had so much problems with governement laws for solar energy, since we have started, and now Holland has decided to cut off incentives without any notice. To sum up, last year Holland decided to protect French solar panel industry, by limiting chinese solar panels imports. He decided to give incentives to the ones who decide to buy european solar panels. All solar installers and manifacturers followed, but we knew that they are playing with fire by not playing the rules of World Trade Organization, but now we are facing a back-out of the French government.
The truth is that we are reaching a point where green energy costs less than nuclear energy. Nuclear lobbyists don't even have to convince the government to cut off subsidies for green energy. The governement owns partly E.D.F. Lots of studies have shown that green energy costs less than nuclear, plus, the impact on the environment is less destructive. If a wind turbine is defective, it only takes a day to take it down. How do we demolish a nuclear plant? The French don't have the answer. They take down one piece at the time, put the pieces in bins, and dig a hole and throw the bins in it.
Other european countries, like Germany took a green turn, since the Tchernobyl catastrophe. France on the other hand, prefers to pursue this nuclear madness. The environmental party in France is too weak, and have no power whatsover. We foolishly believed Holland when he said that he will close down the oldest nuclear plant in Alsace, and he hasn't done anything yet.
If you read French, here's some infos:
http://tecsol.blogs.com/mon_weblog/2014/02/-hollande-fera-t-il-plus-de-mal-%C3%A0-la-fili%C3%A8re-photovolta%C3%AFque-que-sarkozy-.html
I can imagine how frustrating it must be for you... and for many others. Remember that French are very reluctant to change. It's a cultural thing I guess, they don't embrace new ideas easily.
ReplyDeleteThey are indeed reluctant to change, but French politics are corrupted.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand the French government is imposing RT2012 on new houses. People who want to build new house have to ask for a study to evaluate whether they meet the requirements or not. Some said this could cost 15% more on construction costs. One of the requirements is that at least one energy uses in the house is renewable. Shouldn't this bring more business to Solar industry?
ReplyDeleteSince RT2012 started, we have not received more demands for solar panels. If you install solar panels on a new house, the TVA (VAT) is 20%, and if you wait 2 years, you can get a TVA at 10%. (renovation on houses).
ReplyDeleteAlso, the "energy feasibility study" (étude de faisabilité énergétique) always favours natural gas.
http://www.actu-environnement.com/ae/news/chauffage-electrique-gaz-naturel-rt2012-15307.php4
Then again, this is the work of gas lobbyists. Although, we might face some problems with natural gas shortage because of conflicts between Russia and Ukraine.