Special environmental day on France Bleu Isère this Thursday, March 31, ten days before the first round of the presidential election. The environment is one of the priorities that emerged from the major Ma France consultation. Among the proposals, develop renewable energies. Even if they too are impacted by the war in Ukraine and see their prices rise, recognizes our guest, Vincent Jacques-Leseigneur, president of Enercoop Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, cooperative electricity supplier and of renewable origin.
France Bleu Isère: The war in Ukraine is destabilizing the electricity market, prices are rising. Does this also have an impact on renewable energies?
Vincent Jacques-Leseigneur: Yes they are directly impacted. Quite simply because the war in Ukraine – but also the economic recovery following the pandemic and the tensions on the Chinese market – has resulted in an increase in the price of gas. However, it so happens that the current economic model defines the price of electricity in Europe on the basis of the price of gas. In concrete terms, we take all the energies that make it possible to produce electricity – from the cheapest (renewables) to the most expensive (gas), via nuclear – and so as not to penalize anyone, we define the cost of kilowatt-hour produced by the last unit called, in this case gas. So the more gas rises, the more inevitably the price of renewable energies also increases.
This being the case, at Enercoop, we are a priori on the sidelines of all this, because we are the only ones to guarantee that the electricity that we bring to our customers or our members comes from producers that we know, to whom we sign contracts. But these producers, of course, also sell their kilowatt hours with a market price. So indeed, it is always renewable, but it is more expensive.
You say it’s renewable, but how can I be sure, when I take out a so-called “green” electricity contract, that the energy comes from renewable sources? Where is it produced?
Yes and no. Here at Enercoop, we guarantee direct contracts. We buy exactly the same quantities of electricity from producers as we supply to our customers. Producers who have solar panels, wind turbines, dams, etc.
On the other hand, there are other green electricity offers from competitors – which I will not name – which are “grey” electricity offers – fossil, nuclear, etc. – but which are accompanied by a “guarantee of origin”. It is a document that allows this supplier to say “I am selling you one megawatt hour of gray electricity, but at the same time I have the guarantee that somewhere in Europe one megawatt hour of renewable electricity has been produced“. But it may be in Norwayon Sweden, where you want. We guarantee that it is really on our territory, in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes what is produced the renewable electricity that we distribute,
We see the development at the local level of small solar cooperatives that install panels. We have examples of this in our newspapers this morning. Is this a good model, in your opinion?
It is a very good model. There are several ways to approach the issue of renewables. We can do it individually. I also have solar panels on my garage roof that allow me to produce twice my average annual electricity consumption. So that’s easy.
In short, are you self-sufficient in electricity?
In reality, I sell everything on the EDF network and I buy back what I need. But the difference is that I produce twice as much for the community, the collectivity. Independently of the financial aspects, I have a positive contribution and I participate in the energy transition. But the collective approach is also very interesting because it allows, on the scale of a town, a village, to buy solar panels together, to have them installed simultaneously and therefore to reduce costs. And we are going to accelerate the energy transition not of an individual like me, but of a community, that of the village.
And it’s energy made in France
Yes, and above all, which is totally hermetic to the ups and downs of the market. Since the kilowatt hour that I produce, me, under my roof, is at a given price for the next 20 years. There will be no jolts.
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