Energy transition: the government suspends the Heat Fund

New requests for funding from the heat fund, which helps accelerate the deployment of renewable heat and cold networks, will be suspended from Tuesday, announced the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

The ministry's office explained this decision to AFP by the "significant number of projects submitted in 2026" as well as by "budgetary constraints" linked to the reduction in Ademe's allocation in the 2027 budget.

The 2027 finance bill provides the agency with 500 million euros instead of 800 million in 2026. However, the portfolio of projects identified by Ademe represents 1.8 billion euros in aid requests. “Despite the optimizations already made on the heat fund to improve the effectiveness of its intervention, it is necessary, in view of the significant gap between the assistance needs expressed and the State's budgetary availability, to strengthen the rules for prioritizing files and granting aid,” explained the ministry.

“The word of the State must be kept”

The heat fund, created in 2009, supports the development of renewable heat and cold production as well as the development of heating networks in the collective residential, tertiary, industrial and agricultural sectors. The multi-year agreements for territorial renewable heat contracts (CCRT) already concluded with communities will not be called into question and, for project leaders wishing to submit their projects soon, requests for financing for preliminary studies are still possible, Ademe specified.

For Antoine Armand, vice-president of Intercommunalités de France in charge of Energy Transition and president of Greater Annecy, it is “essential to guarantee, at a minimum, the maintenance of the necessary credits” for the completion of projects. “The State's word must be kept: it is a question of trust and visibility for the communities which invest in the energy transition of our country,” he adds.