Hogan Lovell OffshoreBook 2023 230809 OnlinePDF - Flipbook - Page 86
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2. THE OFFSHORE WIND
PROMOTION SYSTEM
2.1 Regulatory framework
The regulatory framework is defined by a set
of laws and decrees, giving a strong role to
the French Energy Regulatory Authority (in
French: the "Commission de régulation de
l’énergie" - CRE).
CRE is a main player in the OWF sector and
plays a strong role in setting the agenda for
the sector and its regulatory framework as
it helps the Government to, among other
things, prepare the competitive procedures
and to attribute the OWF projects.
The newest laws impacting the development of OWF are the following:
(a) law n°2015-992 dated 17 August 2015
relating to energy transition for green
growth defines the framework of the
French energy policy and sets out its
goals in terms of production and consumption of renewable energies (see
section 1 above), and creates the MAEP
mechanism evoked above;
(b) law n°2018-727 dated 10 August 2018 for
a State serving a society of trust takes
into account the lessons learned from
the first set of awarded OWF projects
(the development of which was hindered
by insufficient preliminary studies and
inadequate permitting and ultra vires
procedures), and simplifies the permitting process and increases the role of the
Minister in charge of energy - therefore
unburdening the operators of some
France
tasks. More precisely, it states that the
Minister in charge of energy requests the
French national public debate commission ("Commission nationale du débat
public") to organise the participation of
the public before the award of the project. It also allows the winning bidder of a
tender procedure to adapt its project to
take into account the technical progress
that may have appeared since the submission of its offer;
(c) as mentioned above, law n°2019-1147
dated 8 November 2019 relating to
energy and climate, increases significantly France’s goals in terms of electricity
produced by the OWF; and
(d) finally, law n°2023-175 of 10 March 2023
on the acceleration of renewable energy
production, aiming among others at accelerating the development of offshore
wind power.
These laws and other applicable provisions
are mainly gathered in three different codes,
which are the Energy Code, the Environment Code, and the Code of public entities’
property.
