Debate on the photovoltaic sector: Ciel et Terre's proposal to the government

Please, a little justice in the sun!

A simple way to reduce photovoltaic "speculation"

If photovoltaic operators are "speculators", according to the words repeated ad nauseam by our ministers, then the first speculator is indeed the main beneficiary of the authorizations granted or requested, namely EDF-EN, which holds more than 50% of the "queue".

The government cannot tolerate such speculation from a company under its supervision. The relevant ministers would therefore be well advised to demand that EDF-EN completely abandon its pending projects. This would allow the latter to immediately deflate, falling short of the Grenelle objectives, and thus give breathing space to SMEs that are unfairly competing with EDF-EN, which for its part clearly benefits from particularly advantageous conditions with the investigating authorities.

OPEN LETTER

To Ms. Kosciusko-Morizet, Minister of Ecology and Mr. Besson, Minister of Industry,

On a simple way to reduce photovoltaic "speculation": EDF-EN's exit from the "queue".

Madame, Monsieur,

At the recent General Assembly of the Renewable Energy Union, you once again reiterated the need to combat the "speculation" affecting the photovoltaic sector, thus taking over from the Prime Minister who spoke of a "speculative bubble", and from all the government discourse for several months.

Employees and managers of SMEs in the photovoltaic sector feel deeply and gravely insulted, even outraged, by these recurring accusations. You probably can't imagine the heart, faith, and sincerity of the thousands of young people who created or joined solar companies to contribute to the production of this most beautiful energy. These thousands of young people who now have to be laid off or whose companies will soon file for bankruptcy.

But, since you say so, we are all speculators. And condemned to death for that!

But who is the biggest, the ugliest speculator? The biggest among us, of course!

This operator owns more than half of the photovoltaic projects in France. I don't think I've heard you condemn it. You probably don't know it?

EDF-EN is, however, a subsidiary of EDF. If we are not mistaken, EDF itself is directly under the supervision of the State, which clearly holds nearly 70% of the capital. More than half of the speculation is therefore the direct responsibility of your government, which has absolute control over EDF-EN. May we know why you did not prohibit EDF's speculative directors from their scandalous practices in time? This time again, you are responsible, but not guilty?

There is therefore a simple, immediate way to reduce the volume of speculative solar projects: all you have to do, starting tomorrow morning, is demand that your subsidiary EDF-EN immediately abandon all its speculative megaprojects, which amount to thousands of megawatts.

We would then see the so-called "bubble" deflate and this would perhaps give a little breathing space to the very small speculators that we are, who for our part work in tenths of megawatts to equip private or industrial roofs or even modest-sized solar fields.

It would only be a matter of justice!

Indeed, how can we explain, how can we accept, the conditions in which EDF-EN has accumulated these projects?

How can we explain that this company could consider developing an 800 hectare site in Beaucaire on agricultural land: a practice that is completely prohibited for other operators.

How can we understand that this company can build a project of several hundred megawatts on several thousand hectares in the Landes forests, when the legal ceiling for photovoltaic power plants is 12 megawatts? Isn't the artificial division of these parks a clear abuse of rights that you should strongly condemn?

How can we accept that this company was able to benefit from enormous military land, without any call for tenders ever having been launched?

How can we tolerate the fact that this company, through its monopolistic practices and its inbred and unmentionable relationships with the ERDF and EDF-AOA supervisory services, has been able to stifle other operators to such an extent by confiscating the potential of the Grenelle for its own benefit?

You will certainly not tolerate this, and we are confident in your republican spirit: you will fight this unfair, inequitable competition, and free the queue of these highly speculative projects.

Please accept, Madam and Sir, our respectful greetings.

The employees and managers of Ciel et Terre.

CIEL ET TERRE in Brief: Since 2006, Ciel et Terre has been designing, operating and developing large-scale industrial rooftop photovoltaic solar power plants – over 2,000 m² – and ground-mounted solar power plants in France and Réunion, dedicated to the production of clean energy. Today, more than 80,000 m² of rooftops have been installed and the capacity is 15 MWp. www.ciel-et-terre.net