French green industry secures multi-billion euro support in one week

Between Thursday 23 May and Tuesday 28 May more than €5.3 billion of funding for French industry was announced by government and commercial investors, boosting the country’s drive to revitalise and decarbonise its industrial base. 

As in previous years, the French government took advantage of the Vivatech technology event in Paris to announce the latest achievements within its green investment programme. Industrial decarbonisation was a core focus.

The series of announcements kicked off on Tuesday when industry and energy delegated Minister Roland Lescure unveiled 10 projects that will benefit from €42 million of support from the latest ‘First Factory’ grant programme.

The award is the fifth under the ‘First Factory’ programme, which has now allocated €293 million in subsidies to 66 different projects since it began in January 2022.

The 10 announced projects are all linked to the ecological transition, but four deal directly with industry decarbonisation. Industry currently accounts for around 18% of France’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The ‘Ballons’ project in the Vosges region will develop a bio-based substitute for coal, for the silicon and metallurgy industries. Biogas company Delatlys will tap into the circular economy to produced new filters for biogas, as part of the ‘Puri-fab’ project.

Two hydrogen-based projects also won. These projects will respectively develop fuel cell electricity generators, and steel from carbon-free hydrogen.

The programme sits within the larger ‘France 2030′ programme, which will invest €54 billion of public funds over five years into innovation, industrial renewal and decarbonisation.

France’s drive to decarbonise the French industry is not limited to funding. In October 2023, President Emmanuel Macron enacted a so-called ‘green industry law’, which aims to establish new clean technology manufacturing plants in France by 2030.

This is in line with the EU’s recently adopted Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), the bloc’s primary tool to keep green industry in Europe and reduce dependence upon imports from competitor countries.

European Commission State Aid sign-off

On Friday the European Commission also approved €4 billion of funding to support the electrification of France’s industrial processes and greater energy efficiency within industry.

Hydrogen will be key to decarbonise industrial processeses. To this end, the European Commission approved on Tuesday €1.4 billion of State aid for Hy2Move – an important project of common European interest (IPCEI) and the fourth of its kind in the hydrogen value chain. Thirteen projects will receive aid across Europe, including seven in France.

€1.3 billion for electric batteries

Car-making remains a priority for the country. France aims to produce two million electric and hybrid cars by 2030, with batteries comprising a large part of the economic value of this activity.

Battery-producing start-up Verkor secured on Friday a €1.3 billion loan. “An unprecedented mobilisation of public and private funding,” said Lescure on X.

After already raising €2 billion in September, the French firm will now be able to build its plant near Dunkirk in north France.

Company chairman Benoit Lemaignan previously stated that the factory will produce 16 gigawatt hours of batteries a year (GWh/year) from 2025, before ramping up to ultimately  produce 50 GWh/year.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Alice Taylor]

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