Didier Mandelli: “Built or existing surfaces must be prioritized for developing renewable energy production projects”

Didier Mandelli : First, the targets and the trajectory must be set in stone, that is, in the next Energy and Climate Programming Act. Nevertheless, the law accelerating renewable energy production (APER), which was passed and promulgated in early 2023, sets an initial course.

The first version of this bill was very clearly focused on offshore wind power, but the Senate added provisions to address other renewable energy sources, beginning with solar power, based on a very clear principle: built or existing surfaces must be prioritized for developing new renewable energy production projects rather than developing agricultural or natural land.

This results in stricter requirements: for new or extensively renovated non-residential buildings (warehouses, hospitals, schools, etc.), the minimum solar roof coverage will gradually increase from 30% in 2023 to 50% in 2027. From 2028, this requirement will also apply to existing non-residential buildings.

Didier Mandelli : The APER Act puts elected officials in the driver’s seat, enabling them, in coordination with intermunicipal authorities and prefects, to decide which energy sources will be installed and where… This is the purpose of the provision on planning acceleration zones where renewable energy will be deployed as a priority.

I trust the judgment of local elected officials to develop renewable energy. The financial difficulties many of them have faced in recent months due to soaring energy prices have led to a widespread awareness of the fragility of our resources. Moreover, elected officials must not reason only at the local level. Each region must meet its own needs, of course, but if it can make a positive contribution to energy supply on a broader scale, so much the better. There must be equalization and pooling of resources among different regions.

Didier Mandelli : Everyone has a role to play. The State sets targets and guidelines, must lead by example with its own assets, and encourages entities that depend more or less directly on it to follow the same path, such as SNCF. Local authorities, for their part, implement these targets locally. And businesses have an essential role to play alongside individuals and the public sector. The requirement to cover 50% of a roof by 2027 is a minimum for building-sector stakeholders. If they can go further, they should. I therefore welcome the initiative undertaken by AFILOG members, who are once again anticipating obligations and engaging in a collective, civic effort that goes beyond their industry, with the deployment of 5 million m2 of photovoltaic panels on warehouse roofs over five years.

I have seen this firsthand in Vendée at several sites, including FM Logistics Group’s facility in Saint-Hilaire-de-Loulay. At the Marches de Bretagne business park, the company is building a new 44,280 m² facility whose entire roof will be fitted with solar panels. Its annual production is estimated at 4,000 MWh. Some 500 MWh will be self-consumed on site, while the remainder (3,540 MWh) will be fed back into the local grid… equivalent to the annual consumption of 1,800 residents !

Didier Mandelli : The issue had been well addressed by local elected officials in the housing sector following the 2007 Grenelle Environment Forum, which set land-use efficiency targets. But it had received somewhat less attention for infrastructure and was secondary in the economic sphere. Some departments had nevertheless introduced charters for the efficient management of land. This was the case in Vendée, where 4,893 hectares of natural, agricultural and forest land (ENAF) were found to have been consumed between 2011 and 2020, with the trend declining over the years. 

When the Senate Committee on Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development examined land-use efficiency before the Climate and Resilience bill was passed in 2021, we found there were many misconceptions. This was particularly true of warehouses, which were systematically associated with e-commerce even though most of these buildings handle trade between economic establishments. This was likely due to the lack of information on logistics in the impact assessment used to draft the bill. Together with our colleagues on the Economic Affairs Committee, we therefore worked to educate stakeholders, and the provisions concerning warehouses were adjusted to reflect the reality of the activity. In particular, the moratorium on the establishment of warehouses dedicated to e-commerce was dropped.

Didier Mandelli : The July 20, 2023 law intended to facilitate implementation of the objectives to combat land artificialization and strengthen support for local elected officials brought clarification and flexibility, in the same spirit as the law accelerating renewable energy production. Consultation must now take place, and each region must be able to communicate its land-development needs from the ground up as land-use efficiency is incorporated into the regional spatial planning, sustainable development and regional equality schemes (SRADDET). This is particularly crucial for regions that will contribute to the reindustrialization of our country, because upstream and downstream logistics are indispensable to this strategy.