Around Avignon, revealing the enormous potential of renewable energies
Posted on Nov 2, 2021 at 6:01 amUpdated Nov 2, 2021, 11:52 AM
Desperately looking for shade… Everywhere in Vaucluse, the same mantra. Because of the temperatures of four which fall for several years on this essentially agricultural territory, the economy is on edge.
In the South, which is heating up under climatic pressure, the former enclave of the Popes records the worst tricolor records: 43 ° C in Avignon, 44.3 ° C in Carpentras, and almost 46 ° C at 5 p.m. in the neighboring department of Gard, in Gallargues-le-Montueux, absolute heat record in France recorded in 2019. “The temperature of a normal August day in the Valley of Death, California,” compares an engineer from Météo France.
Up to 4.5 ° C more by 2100
The situation is far from being arranged. “Average annual temperatures have risen by more than one degree in just thirty years. It’s an exceptional situation, ”explains Anne-Marie Martinez, technician at the Regional Agrometeorological Information Center (CIRAME). And the future is more scorched than rosy: if nothing is done, local temperatures could increase another 2.5 to 4.5 degrees by 2100. An unbearable furnace!
This is to say the stake of the Plan Climat Air Energie Territorial (PCAET) of Greater Avignon which must be adopted in December to try to reduce the effects of this warming. The territory started from afar. Marked by a deep rurality and the weakness of the public transport offer (82% of the working population by private car), it consumes 45% of its energy needs for road trips.
And because of the poor condition of the housing stock and the number of thermal strainers, residential housing claims almost a quarter (24%) of electricity consumption. In comparison, the industrial (18%) and tertiary (19%) sectors are almost like good students.
Focus on renewable energies
To reverse this trend, the climate plan has great ambitions: quadruple the production of renewable energy by 2030, and multiply it tenfold in 2050. To date, hydroelectricity, solar, biomass and energy recovery from waste barely 9% of consumption of the territory. “We have significant mobilizable potential with photovoltaic, solar thermal and geothermal energy”, defends Magali Chabrier, responsible for urban planning in the greater Avignon agglomeration.
According to engineers’ calculations, the production of green energy in Grand Avignon (encompassing 16 municipalities) could reach 1,995 GWh, five times the current production. A first step has just been taken with the signing of a framework agreement associating Enedis with the achievement of the objectives. In addition to the current production (based mainly on hydropower), the mobilizable potential reaches 67% for solar photovoltaic, 15% for geothermal energy and 10% for solar thermal.
Not content with establishing renewable energy production, the Vauclusians will have to make efforts to reduce their consumption by 15% by 2030 and by 50% in 2050. “We will have to renovate our homes and our public, control consumption energy from farms, change our habits and modes of travel, reimburse our products, promote local circuits and courts and reduce our waste, ”explains the urban community. A slimming diet!