Breaking with the previous multi-year energy program (PPE), which provided for the closure of 14 reactors, PPE3, presented Thursday by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, marks the relaunch of nuclear power. France 24 takes stock of the main lines of France's new energy policy for the period 2025-2035.

Published on: 02/12/2026 - 6:27 p.m. Modified on: 02/12/2026 - 9:09 p.m.

The end of the suspense. The subject of intense debate for three years, France's new energy strategy, delayed several times due to government instability and political antagonisms over nuclear and renewables, was unveiled Thursday February 12 by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.

The 3rd multi-annual energy program (PPE3) sets the objective of going from 60% fossil fuels in consumption to 60% carbon-free energy by 2030, and 70% in 2035, according to the government. Carbon-free energy must therefore represent 70% by 2035 with electricity contributing 38%.

This roadmap, which must be published in a decree in the Official Journal on Friday morning, details the share that will fall to each sector – nuclear, wind, solar, hydraulic – in energy production over the next ten years. The head of the executive revealed the main lines during a trip to the Saut-Mortier and Vouglans hydroelectric dams, in the Jura.

With this PPE3, for the period 2025-2035, the government is experiencing stagnation in electricity consumption, which is pushing it to slow down the deployment of wind and solar energy, alongside a massive relaunch of nuclear power.

The controversial choice of decree

In an interview with the regional press, Sébastien Lecornu announced on February 7 that he would opt for a decree rather than a law, thus ruling out any debate on the issue.

If a text of law was initially provided for by the Energy-Climate law of 2019, and was to be published before July 1, 2023, the war in Ukraine then the French political instability disrupted the schedule, and no bill was presented to Parliament.

After the tabling of a bill in the Senate, adopted by the right-wing senatorial majority then amended in the Assembly by the LR group and the RN, respectively demanding an immediate moratorium on new wind and photovoltaic installations, and the restart of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant, the text was finally rejected by the deputies, but adopted in new reading in the Senate at the end of 2024 without the moratorium required by LR. A decree was initially planned for September 2025, but the schedule was disrupted again by the fall of the Bayrou government

Thus, “the debates have largely taken place”, believes Sébastien Lecornu. “It is because of the urgency” that the regulatory route is now favored.

“Passed by decree is very regrettable. It is ignoring the law, the will of the French who express themselves through the sovereignty of Parliament,” reacts the president of the Senate Economic Affairs Committee, Dominique Estrosi Sassone (LR). “We put pressure on the government to put the text on the agenda of the National Assembly, but it is paralyzed by what could happen,” she analyzes.

“Going by decree raises democratic questions. But on the other hand there is an emergency for all energy operators. They need visibility,” notes for his part the boss of the environmentalist senators, Guillaume Gontard.

Both PPE 1 and PPE 2 were adopted by decree in 2016 and 2020.

Relaunch of nuclear power

To gain energy sovereignty, reduce dependence on imported gas and oil and produce more electricity, the government is banking on atoms and pushing the cursor fully on nuclear with more ambitious production objectives than last year at the opening of the debates. An increase that the current fleet of reactors will have to assume, the six new EPRs announced by the government not being expected before 2038.

The PPE3 plans a relaunch of nuclear power, breaking with the previous strategy for 2019-2024 – which planned to close 14 reactors –, with “optimization” of the existing fleet from 2030 and an increase in production from 380 to 420 terawatt-hour (TWh) against 320 in 2023, while the public electrician EDF was targeting 400 TWh.

The objectives of the government and EDF, however, clash with nuclear modulation [also called "load monitoring", it refers to the real-time adaptation of the means of production to the country's electricity demand]. Reactor production drops at night, but also during the day to adapt to the production of solar panels. Thus, nuclear modulation has doubled since 2024, enough to raise concerns about the economic and technical consequences of such a phenomenon.

An EDF report, partly revealed by La Tribune on February 5 and in which the public electrician warns of the consequences of the intensification of variations in the power of atomic reactors, was also intercepted by the government which asked EDF not to publish it.

To (re)readThe questions posed by the law to accelerate the construction of new nuclear reactors

Renewables preserved, but undoubtedly slowed down

The most consensual renewable energy, hydroelectricity will be relaunched. The PPE plans to increase the capacities of existing dams by 2.8 GW, including 1.7 GW in pumped energy transfer stations (STEPs), which contribute to the balance between electricity production and consumption, thanks to their storage function.

But the document does, however, provide for a brake on photovoltaics.

While a "reasoned pursuit of the development of terrestrial electrical renewable energies" is mentioned, the installation objectives of which have been adjusted to take into account the evolution of electricity consumption over recent years", the text provides for a reduction in public calls for tenders for future photovoltaic parks.

By 2030, solar power should produce 48 GW of electricity, compared to 54 GW in the PPE put out for public consultation last March. Development will therefore continue, but less rapidly. While France produced 6 GW using solar panels last year, this PPR3 only plans 3.5 GW by 2030 each year.

Offshore wind power is confirmed, but with a slight time delay. The PPE is banking on an acceleration of installations, with a target of 15 GW of installed power by 2035. However, the target of 18 GW is now planned for 2037, in order to better take into account connection deadlines.

Ultimately, it is onshore wind power that the brakes are most significant, due to local opposition. The objective is also lowered, going from 33 to 31 GW by 2030, and from 45 to 35-45 GW by 2035. The government says it wishes to give priority to the renewal of current parks with more efficient turbines, rather than new installations.

While many environmental defenders deplore these new directions, the right and the far right are very critical. Marine Le Pen's party is preparing an appeal to the Council of State against the PPE and even threatens to censor the government.

Thursday, an investigation by journalist and investigator Sophie Simpere, published on the Multinational Observatory website, looks at how "the far right is gaining points in this energy battle against the grain".

Bruno Retailleau, LR senator from Vendée (a region hosting many wind farms) also attacked the PPE in an article published in L'Opinion, demanding an end to subsidies for renewable energies which he considers "a financial burden for the French electricity mix".

“The publication of PPE 3 will cause the price of electricity to explode. This decree only obeys German economic interests who want to scuttle our nuclear asset and the renewable energy lobbies who gorge themselves on public money,” reacted Thursday on X Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, president of Debout la France.

On the left, Matthias Tavel, LFI-NFP MP for Loire-Atlantique, deplores, conversely, a "setback on the development of renewable energies going against climate and industrial ambition, particularly for offshore wind power".

To seeRenewable energies: the boom in biomethanization in France

Biomethane, geothermal energy, carbon-free hydrogen...

At the same time, the government announces that it wants to encourage the use of carbon-free non-electric energy sources “for energy uses that are difficult to electrify”.

For biomethane (renewable gas), the government plans significant objectives of 47 to 82 TWh in 2035, a slight decrease compared to the March version.

In renewable heat, it is still targeting 328 to 421 TWh in 2035, particularly with deep and surface geothermal energy.

In decarbonized hydrogen, the government is smoothing the objectives over time: up to 4.5 GW for 2030 and a new objective of 8 GW in 2035. It is banking on a "gradual increase in the consumption of agrofuels, particularly for air and maritime transport", with a target of 70 to 90 TWh in 2035.

With AFP

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