France pledges €20 billion for technological and energy innovation by 2024 – EURACTIV.com | So Good News

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France will invest around 20 billion euros in technology and energy transitions this year and next, according to preliminary estimates from the October 2021 France 2030 plan presented by the government on Friday (November 18).

Read the original French article here.

This year, as part of the France 2030 plan, more than 10 billion euros are expected to be invested in supporting innovation and helping the industry transition, with the government promising to invest the same amount in 2023. In 2022, this money financed approximately 1,700 projects.

“France 2030 gives us the means to make history today,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a press release of the 2023 plan.

This was announced by Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne Les Echos that now “it is more important than ever to accelerate implementation.”

While Macron’s initial France 2030 pledge reached 30 billion euros when he first announced the plan last year, the total pledge now stands at 54 billion euros, with 8.4 billion euros earmarked for 2022.

Macron presents France’s 2030 targets, backed by 30 billion euros

French President Emmanuel Macron presented his ambitious France 2030 investment plan on Tuesday (October 12th). The €30 billion plan will support innovation in flagship projects such as small-scale nuclear reactors and the first low-carbon aircraft.

Energy innovation

For energy, the government has announced investments of 169 million euros during the year. However, in reality, energy projects should benefit more than 5.7 billion euros, which will be directed to investment funds, research, support for companies, transport and raw materials.

By 2030, the funds should be allocated so that half goes to decarbonising the economy and the other to new players and innovators with “no negative impact on the environment”.

The remaining 1.6 billion euros have not yet been allocated for 2023.

The goal is to “allocate 20 billion euros by the end of 2023,” said Born, who attended the Charles Fabry lab at Paris-Saclay University on Friday, and is currently receiving France 2030 funds for the quantum computing project.

In other words, two-thirds of the originally announced 30 billion euros for 2030 have been invested in just two years.

Funding for the NUWARD project, as well as three other “identified” projects to build small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), among Macron’s flagship projects announced last year, will be secured next year, the government also said. offered a preliminary assessment.

Funding for the projects will begin at the end of the first quarter of 2023, with the goal of establishing the first SMR in 2030.

This should reduce the costs of the nuclear industry and, according to a government press brochure, “allow many countries to replace thermal power stations of similar capacity (gas and coal) to decarbonize their electricity mix”.

Nuclear innovation

Of the €54 billion in the 2030 plan, SMR development should receive €1.2 billion.

Innovation is also on the menu, as the plan includes a call for projects for “innovative nuclear reactors” which, if selected, will benefit from the scientific and technical support of the “CEA (French Commission for Alternative Energy and Atomic Energy)”. a major player in French nuclear research.

France also plans to invest more than 9 billion euros to develop the hydrogen industry “fully” by 2030, Bourne said. With these funds, France will increase its electrolysis capacity by 6.5 gigawatts (GW) for production. Produced 650,000 tons of carbon-free hydrogen and created a total of 100,000 jobs.

The innovative plan envisages renewable energy sources, in particular, in wind energy – 2 GW in floating wind turbines by 2030 or in solar energy – 10 GW in the annual production of cells and modules to accelerate the industrialization process.

By 2030, two million electric cars will be produced

Investments are also poured into the field of electric cars.

Bourne also expects two million electric vehicles to be produced by 2030, with an interim goal of one million by 2027.

With this plan, France also plans to build the first low-carbon aircraft, with a total budget of 1.5 billion euros.

Raw materials have not been left out, as France has allocated 2.9 billion euros for their large-scale recycling.

This includes projects on French soil, such as the first lithium mine project the government recently secured for the Allier region.

The government also decided to allocate 2.8 billion euros to train more than a million people for the “jobs of the future.” Some of this money will also be used for support projects Battery School has recently been launched Vercor, which specializes in the production of batteries for electric vehiclesand his 11 associates.

In addition, Bourne announced that the government will appoint “sub-prefects for France 2030 and investments” to support the transition territories, especially by facilitating the dialogue between the central administration and local authorities.

[Edited by Daniel Eck/Nathalie Weatherald]

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