Energy communities driving renovation in France

France is well-positioned on the path towards climate neutrality, but technical and financial issues are still a barrier. In this context, building renovation is crucial to significantly reducing emissions.

Alter Alsace Energies and AURA-EE — the French enablers of the Support Service for Citizen-led Renovation (CLR) — tell us about the initiatives they are carrying out to advance building renovation.

Energy communities in France are linked through regional networks to foster and facilitate energy projects led by citizens. In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, AURA-EE runs the regional network AURACLE, in Grand Est Region Alter Alsace Energies runs the GECLER network. Both associations cooperate through the national movement Energie Partagée, which coordinates the energy community development in the country.  

How is the state of the art of building renovation in France?

While the energy transition is underway in France and the development of renewable energies is a reality, achieving a 100% renewable energy mix requires a significant reduction in consumption, which is slow to achieve. Thermal renovation accounts for a significant proportion of these savings. Major efforts are being made to inform residents (via the France Rénov advice service), to impose the renovation of tertiary buildings (tertiary decree), and by local authorities renovating public buildings. However, technical and financial issues are major barriers to real mass adoption.

Why are citizen-led renovation initiatives important?

Energy renovation is a pillar of the energy transition, but the highly dispersed nature of the buildings to be renovated makes any centralised action difficult. It is therefore necessary for a citizen-led movement to take shape and spread so that the residents themselves, the occupants of the entire housing stock to be renovated, become the drivers of this transition.

Furthermore, once trained, citizens are the guarantors of technically efficient and socially just renovation.

How do local citizen energy networks work?

The citizen energy networks AURACLE and GECLER support energy communities in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Grand Est regions to develop, respectively, renewable energy projects led by citizens and local authorities. These regional networks are part of the national Energie Partagée movement, created in 2010. AURACLE and GECLER help to connect existing projects and set up new ones.

Most citizen energy projects in France have been built around rooftop solar panels. Currently, in order to cope with the instability of the French context in this field, our networks are developing specific support measures to help communities diversify: heat, renovation, energy savings, and even citizen-owned ground-mounted solar farms.

What is the role of Alter Alsace Energies and AURA-EE in the Citizen-led Renovation (CLR) project?

Citizen-led renovation projects are an opportunity for energy communities in France. Our networks offer collective training on energy renovation, exchanges between collectives interested in the subject, and a whole range of personalised support, whether on technical, legal, economic or mobilisation issues, so that collectives can more easily take ownership of this new subject.

Discover more about why we need citizen-led renovation initiatives here!