Mr. François MOISAN, Executive Director of Strategy, Research and International Affairs and Scientific Director of ADEME delivered on July 4, a conference at ICARE institute entitled “Energy-mix transition in France: energy efficiency and development of renewable energy”.
A large debate about energy-mix transition has been launched in France at the end of 2012. Its objective aims at developing energy efficiency and renewable energies so as to divide by 4 green-house gases (GHG) emissions in 2050, while reducing the share of nuclear in the energy-mix down to 50% in 2025. To this French government has taken a series of policy steps, including setting up regulations and scrutinizing actions, informing consumers, signing voluntary agreements of industrial, reducing tax and subsidizing investments, building demonstrators and industrial experimentations, in different industries, especially building and transports sector. ADME is also involved and managed a green energy technologies innovation programme.
He stressed that building is the highest energy consuming sector since it accounts for 44 % of total energy consumption and 20% of national GHG emissions. The energy efficiency target is a 40% reduction in energy demand in 2020. White Certificate Scheme was talked by Mr. Moisan as a distinguishing measure. It was launched and targets at small consumers. The suppliers were encouraged to adopt energy saving measure, either implementing energy savings programs or purchasing white certificates. The scheme was proved a big success with a result exceeding the target by 56%.
In transport sector, to meet the objective “20% decrease in GHG emissions” in 2020, vehicle efficiency improvement, motor-fuel taxes, bonus-malus on car purchases, etc. were taken. Demonstrators are also built and industrial experimentations implemented with important funding.
Regarding renewable energy, Mr. Mosian thinks that biomass, especially biofuels have better prospects and are widely used, followed by solar energy, wind energy and marine energy, etc. ADEME also works with the private sector and funds an array of demonstrators and industrial experimentations on technological innovativions on cars as well as innovative railway and ships, for instance with AREVA, ALSTOM, Schneider Electric, etc.
At the end of the presentation, Mr. Mosian also talked about the advanced plans on energy saving and utilizing of clean energy, such as low energy consumption and (or) land saving building, one shared car replace three individual cars, low-carbon fuel standard, more efficient public transports, etc. Carrying out all these measures on a large scale will definitely create job opportunities, increase the income of households, and stimulate GDP growth.
Besides the conference, many visits were organized by ICARE staff for Mr. Moisan.
- The City of the Future and the Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) research center,
- The SKL for Clean Coal Combustion,
- The future JV of Dongfeng Yangtze Motor and the French company LEVIDAC where a new gas turbine powered bus will be developed.
- Wuhan Citizen home which clearly shows the implication of Wuhan municipality in sustainable development.
He also had exchanges with professors HUANG Dong and LIU Xiaohu on building architecture. Discussions with the European dean, M. Farine, the European executive director, M. Aublant and the director of the research platform, Professor HU Song, on possible cooperation between ICARE and ADEME were also held.
