Paris, 20 January 2023

N°532

Press release

Agnès PANNIER-RUNACHER and Roland LESCURE announce the launch of working groups on the renewable and nuclear energy production industry

While the Government is carrying two bills to accelerate the deployment of renewable energies on the one hand and the construction of new nuclear facilities on the other, and in preparation for the future “Green Industry” bill, the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, and the Minister Delegate in charge of Industry, Roland Lescure, have launched two working groups aimed at better structuring the renewable energy and nuclear industry sectors.

These working groups, which bring together public and private players, in close collaboration with the nuclear and new energy systems CSFs, will examine production resources, technologies and skills, with a dual objective: to strengthen our country’s industrial sovereignty and energy independence by building up our competitive low-carbon energy production capacities.

With regard specifically to renewable energies, the working group must avoid moving from one dependency to another. Indeed, production technologies constitute a real issue of sovereignty. The aim is to draw up a detailed inventory of all the industrial value chains of French renewable production: solar, solar thermal, wind, offshore wind, floating wind, geothermal, wood energy, biogas, biofuel, etc. On the basis of this inventory, the working group’s mission will be to strengthen our industrial value chains by mobilising the entire arsenal at our disposal: existing mechanisms (France 2030 plan, Bpifrance and ADEME mechanisms, etc.), regulatory measures, legislative modalities (in particular the future energy-climate programming law and the future “green industry” bill). In a systemic and transverse way to all our renewable energy industries, the priority of this working group will be to reflect on the implementation of measures aiming to compete on equal terms with our main competitors on a global scale, in particular in response to the “Inflation Reduction Act” set up by the United States.

Concerning the nuclear energy industries, in the context of the nuclear revival announced by the President of the Republic on 10 February 2022 in Belfort, the Government has deployed numerous support measures with France Relance and France 2030 in favour of competence, the increase in the power of the industrial tool (relocation, modernisation and increase in capacity) and innovation.

During the meeting, and following the presentation of the preliminary results of the work carried out by the industry to support this recovery, the ministers asked GIFEN to submit their finalised Match study by 15 April 2023, which will be the tool used to monitor the adequacy of the industry’s resources to its workload. They also asked the Université des Métiers du Nucléaire to propose, by 15 May 2023, a detailed plan to deploy a real “Marshall Plan for skills” within the nuclear energy industries, including operational proposals to prepare for the start of the school year in September 2023 (e.g. companionship). Finally, the companies in the sector were able to share their feedback on the support mechanisms and their major challenges for 2023 and 2024, in order to ensure that the support measures implemented by the State and the sector are as effective as possible in order to be able to deliver one of the most important energy and industrial programmes of the century, subject to the orientations of the Parliament during the future energy and climate programming law.

On this occasion, Agnès PANNIER-RUNACHER, Minister for Energy Transition, declared: “The nuclear and renewable energy acceleration bills that I am promoting will make it possible to accelerate the deployment of these low-carbon energies. This implies strengthening the industrial sectors because our needs in terms of technology and equipment will increase significantly. Photovoltaic panels, floating wind turbines, geothermal drilling capacities on the one hand and the revival of nuclear power on the other… We must control the value chain of these technologies and activities from end to end. Energy and industry are two sides of the same coin, that of our sovereignty and our ability to achieve carbon neutrality, and the State will continue to support this dynamic which will enable France to become the leading low-carbon industrial nation.

Roland LESCURE, Minister Delegate in charge of Industry, declared: “Faced with the colossal needs for the deployment of renewable energies and nuclear power in the coming years, we must accelerate the industrialisation of these sectors. We are moving forward with a sustained legislative schedule, in particular with a “green reindustrialisation” bill that will contribute to this objective. I hope that the energy industry will participate in its development. It is a question of bringing together the conditions, specific to each sector, to have sovereign and efficient value chains. This is a prerequisite for continuing to build a competitive and sustainable industry.