L R AS Published on Monday 16 December 2019 - n° 302 - Categories:miscellaneous financial
Citizens' projects provide more local income
The economic spin-offs of citizen projects represent twice or three times the amount of private renewable energy installation projects. In a citizen project, the territory guarantees and maximises the project's contributions to local services and to the income generated by the investment of communities and citizens. In a private project,
the territory only benefits from tax income and rents linked to the occupation of the space, as well as a variable share of local benefits.
This observation comes from a study of 36 citizen installations of 88 MW, i.e. 69% of the total power in operation studied by the Energie Partagée movement. The economic benefits were extrapolated to the whole of France. They are calculated over a period of twenty years, even if the plants have a longer lifespan.
Income from local investment, salaries and benefits of service providers constitute almost two thirds of the local spin-offs. Investing means having access to the associated revenues, but also taking part in the governance of the projects and therefore in the choice of service providers. 100 million of local benefits are thus injected into the host territories. This amount is divided into 20% during the construction phase and 80% during the operation phase, as the local inhabitants hold the capital of these power plants. More precisely, for 1 euro invested in a citizen project of renewable energy production, 2.5 euros benefit the local economic fabric through taxation, rents, salaries, benefits and investment income.
Full Sun of December 10th
NDLR If such an investment contributes so much to localities, there should be more citizen projects. Is it out of ignorance that there are not more of them?
