France expands restrictions of 'power areas'

• The French power regulator has actually expanded the optimum allowed range between participants of an energy community from 2 kilometres to 20 km.

CRE, the French power regulator, has authorized a proposition to alter the optimum permitted distance in between participants of energy communities for self-consumption objectives from 2 km to 20 kilometres.

The regulator said the brand-new rules are based upon the need to attach people through energy communities in remote and lightly inhabited areas. The CRE likewise took into consideration a federal government proposal to increase the optimum capability of power neighborhoods from 3 MW to 5 MW, but it made a decision not to authorize the suggested adjustment.

France introduced energy neighborhoods in March, complying with a lengthy pilot stage. The power community principle brings together geographically close consumers and producers of PV power into a single self-consumption unit.

Various other European countries, consisting of Italy, Spain and also Portugal, have also presented arrangements to sustain the growth of energy neighborhoods.