The European Commission has said France can grant state aid to its energy sector.
The country plans to make improve its high efficiency combined heat and power (CHP) plants and reduce their carbon emissions by supporting the deployment of around 7MW of additional generation capacity.
Those CHP plants up to 1MW will receive support in the form of a feed-in-premium on top of the market price, while those up to 300kW will receive support in the form of a feed-in tariff.
High efficiency combined heat and power units provide at least 10% primary energy savings as compared to units that produce heat and electricity separately, the Commission stated.
The EU found that the French scheme promotes the integration of electricity produced by combined heat and power plants into the market and it will increase the proportion of power generated from renewable sources and reduce pollution.
