France is -- at last! starting its way-overdue catch-up in renewables. It is at least a decade behind most of its European neighbours.

Terrestrial wind has been sabotaged by a very effective astroturfing operation, which has created a sort of national psychosis that windmills are ugly, dangerous, unecological and, um, unnecessary.
Offshore wind, which has barely started, has been targeted in a similar way, but it seems that the government has finally decided to go for it seriously.

Solar has been similarly mishandled. Fun fact : historically, (and I haven't seen any indication that this has changed), local government has been FORBIDDEN from installing solar on publicly owned properties (municipal offices, schools, whatever) because that would require them to borrow money and that would affect France's macroeconomic indicators! Never mind that it's a solid money earner that would enable reducing local taxes while generating enormous amounts of electricity...

The current government, like ALL its predecessors, has, until the past few months, signaled its virtue on renewable energy while doing nothing to enable its widespread adoption. Now all us whining greenies are seeing the stuff we have been proposing for decades becoming official policy overnight... it would piss me off if it wasn't such a relief.

This came about primarily because of the fact that a bunch of maintenance issues affected the nuclear base load, just when the price/availability of gas posed a problem. France's proud energy independence was suddenly very shaky, and the magic market did not provide palatable alternatives.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}