L R AS Published on Saturday 14 November 2020 - n° 340 - Categories:minister-regulation
Continuation of the pre-2011 contract schedule
On November 13, MPs voted on the amendment introduced by the government on Saturday, November 7. It approves the retroactive revision of solar purchase contracts prior to 2011. Enerplan denounces the government's unilateral, retroactive and totally unacceptable questioning of a contract.
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The Minister of Ecological Transition states that "the revision of tariffs will be targeted and fair. It is a question of going back on a small minority of contracts that concern installations that have already been depreciated, which have benefited from a return on capital that sometimes exceeds 20% at the taxpayer's expense".
"If we do nothing (...), the taxpayer will have to pay more than 20 billion euros in 10 years time to pay for all these contracts, whereas fewer subsidies would make it possible to maintain the same production of renewable energy by remunerating the producers in a normal way".
Editor's note It cannot be judged whether the Minister's assertion (excessive return on depreciated facilities) is justified. We do not know the status of the contracts in question, nor their holders. It is easy to understand that if the contracts are golden, their holders want to maintain them. Is this normal?
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The association (Solidarité Renouvelables) was created to combat this amendment. It would bring together 300 business leaders, local elected officials and association presidents. It believes that the negotiation process, operator by operator, will mobilise a considerable amount of time from the administration and the companies concerned, for a result that the government no longer quantifies.
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Finergreen indicates that it has already noted a deferral or halt in transactions in progress. The players are waiting to see what will happen. The 850 installations concerned still have bank debts corresponding to their construction. Everyone fears that the power plant holders will no longer be able to repay their loans, that the banks, which would have 5 to 6 billion outstanding on these power plants, will seize them and sell them at a discount. It is feared that the credit institutions will tighten the credit conditions on the new operations in order to better protect themselves against a possible new challenge by the State.
The risk is that the launch of the hydrogen plan will suffer the same fate: the price of hydrogen should be divided by ten in the future, exactly the same as the evolution of photovoltaic between 2010 and 2020. This should dampen the ardour of hydrogen investors.
Editor's note One can always shake up the worst, which is never safe. The defence of categorical interests always hides behind beautiful feelings.
