(Bloomberg) -- France’s bill for subsidizing renewable energy production will rise by about 50% to €6 billion ($6.5 billion) in 2025 as wholesale power prices fall further below the level guaranteed in supply contracts.
Mainland France will spend almost €4 billion this year as the country commissions new offshore wind farms and adds bio-methane production facilities, Commission de Regulation de l’Energie said in a report published Tuesday evening.
About half of the support will be devoted to solar power generation this year and next, the report showed. Onshore wind production is due to receive just €234 million in government aid next year even as it churns out about half of renewable electricity that’s backed by subsidies.
The report comes soon after energy price inflation, which has been exacerbated by nuclear plant outages in France and dwindling Russian gas deliveries to Europe since 2022, was seen to have contributed to the defeat of President Emmanuel Macron’s party in this month’s legislative elections.
The rising cost of subsidies is a reversal from the last two years, when wholesale power prices soared above contractual rates, meaning renewable-power generator paid the government. Onshore wind farms contributed more than €5.7 billion to France’s budget from 2022 to 2023, the regulator’s report showed. They are expected to contribute another €251 million this year, CRE said.
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