Technologies

| The Syndicat des Énergies Renouvelables (French renewable energy association) is the only professional organization in Europe that brings together all the renewable energy industries: biomass (FBE), wood, biofuel, biogas, wind, renewable marine, geothermal, hydroelectric, heat pump, solar photovoltaic (SOLER), solar thermal, and thermodynamic energies.

 

Created in 1993, today it is composed of a team of twenty staff working at the service of its 380 members, representing a turnover of 10 billion Euros and more than 80,000 jobs. Its mission is to promote the interests of renewable energy industrial figures and professionals to public authorities, the Parliament, and all energy, industry, employment, and research authorities.

Among its members are the large European and French energy groups, as well as many SMEs and middle market companies. To carry out its missions, the SER regularly meets with and advises ministers and their cabinets, Administration officials, decentralized services of the State, parliamentarians, regional presidents, mayors, and the media. It also actively follows the preparation of legislative and regulatory texts.

Furthermore, the Syndicat des Énergies Renouvelables, in particular under the banners of France Solar Industry for solar power or French Fire for wood heating, assists its members in international markets. A trusted representative to French and international authorities who are active in the promotion of the industry throughout the world, it acts to facilitate and catalyze bilateral partnerships and investments. Since its creation, the Syndicat des Énergies Renouvelables has presented several proposals that have contributed to the development of the renewable energy sector in France, in particular since the European directive of 2001 on the opening of the European energy market.

Since this date, to organize favorable conditions for the development of renewable energy in France, the SER has proposed to the various Administrations measures that have constituted the economic base for the businesses in this field: feed-in tariffs for renewable electricity, public support devices for renewable heating, etc. It contributed to the drafting of regulations and to the preparation then incorporation of these new forms of energy onto electricity grids. And it has defended, when it was necessary, renewable energy and its relevance in the French energy mix at a time when many questioned the role that it could play. The POPE (Programmation fixant les Orientations de la Politique Énergétique, French energy policy planning) law of July 13th, 2005, the Grenelle Environmental Roundtable laws I, of July 23rd , 2009, and II, of July 12th , 2010, the energy transition law for green growth of August 17th, 2015 – at each step of each text the SER presented its arguments to allow these new energy industries to maintain their place and for its 380 members to be able to develop, preserve, and accelerate the growth of their activities in France as well as internationally. Today, with the law presented by Ségolène Royal, Minister of the Environment, Energy, and the Sea, charged with international relations for the climate, and adopted last August, France new has development goals for renewable energy that are up to the challenge of the two major issues that must be faced: the global issue of climate change and the national need to breathe new life into our economy.

In fact, the law engages our country to create an energy mix for 2030 that includes 32% renewable energy, compared to the 14.6% it did at the end of 2014: 40% electricity production, 38% final heating consumption, 15% final fuel consumption, and 10% gas consumption. For overseas departments, the goal set by the law is to reach energy autonomy by 2030 with an intermediate goal of 50% renewable energy by 2020. This doubling in less than 15 years, which will be structured by an energy plan over the next several years, will allow regions to take full advantage of the energy transition and for our businesses to create thousands of jobs that cannot be offshored to respond to national and international demands.

To showcase its industries, their roles, and their many assets, the SER has organized its annual conference since 1999, which brings together more than a thousand attendees at the UNESCO House in Paris, an occasion at which political figures – the Prime Minister, French and foreign energy ministers, heads of large energy groups and SMEs, French and foreign regional presidents come to focus on their engagements and strategies for the development of the field. Still other engagements develop the presence of the SER and its industries: press conferences and trips, meetings with renewable energy businesses and regions, industry conferences (biomass, solar, wind, renewable marine energies), and informational publications on the state of development in the various industries.

The SER has also been entrusted, by public authorities, with the development of the industrial wind power industry in France. Through Windustry France, it assists companies looking to diversify their activity into the wind power sector, and then puts them in contact with large ordering parties. Today, encouraged by the goals of the energy transition law for green growth and by the global movement of massive development in renewable energy, the Syndicat des Énergies Renouvelables is confident that its various industries will create numerous jobs and participate in the relaunching of France’s economy.