France expands limits of ‘energy communities’

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From pv magazine France

The French government has officially approved the anticipated decree to increase the maximum distance between members of energy communities for self-consumption from 2 km to 20 km.

Under the new regulations, collective self-consumption initiatives can expand up to 10 km in peri-urban regions and up to 20 kilometers in rural areas. This perimeter specifies the distance between the two farthest participants within an energy community. To meet these updated criteria, the organizing legal entity must still apply for an exemption from the previous distance requirement.

“The municipalities that can be considered as having a rural character are those belonging to the categories rural towns, rural environments with dispersed habitat and rural environment with very dispersed habitat,'” the French authorities said. “The municipalities that can be considered as having a peri-urban character are those belonging to the small towns and urban belts categories of the municipal density grid established by the National Institute of Statistics.”

In March, France introduced energy communities after an extensive pilot phase. The energy community concept unites nearby consumers and PV energy producers into a single self-consumption entity.

Likewise, several other European countries, such as Italy, Spain, and Portugal, have implemented measures to facilitate the growth of energy communities.

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