To reduce its energy bill, the city of Paris turns off its Eiffel Tower, its monuments and lowers the temperature of its buildings. But in Paris, the real emergency in terms of energy sobriety is elsewhere, in the private housing stock, on which the city tries to influence without great means.
It will stop flashing from 23:45 o’clock tonight. According to the announcement of the Paris City Council, the turning off of the lights of the Eiffel Tower is brought forward from today against one in the morning during normal hours. The capital wants to make the Iron Lady a symbol of its efforts to tackle the energy crisis. A symbol that actually represents just a drop of gas and electricity. The latter have soared this year by 110% and 134% respectively. With the reduction of the temperature in public buildings and swimming pools and the end of lighting in town halls and district museums, the city expects to reduce its consumption by 10% in two years.
But in the capital, public buildings and municipal services again represent a tiny part of Parisian energy consumption: 4% in total. The title of largest energy consumer goes to… private condominiums, which gobble up 40% of the energy pie. Far ahead of offices (16%), the State (7%) or even hotels, cafes and restaurants (6%). Of 1.4 million main homes in the city of light, the city council only has specific control over its 250,000 social homes (9% of consumption). “We are renovating 5,000 a year with a budget of 600 million euros and a state investment of 18 million euros, but the pace of the private stock must be urgently accelerated,” acknowledges Jacques Baudrier, deputy responsible for the ecological transition of buildings.
Few renovated condos in fact
This is the goal of its energy renovation program managed by the Paris Climate Agency, Eco-rénovons Paris launched in 2016 and Eco-rénovons Paris Plus, launched in September. Through an online platform called Coachcopro, Eco-rénovons claims to be the one stop shop for energy renovation for Parisian condominiums. The system proposes in particular the financing of part of the consumption audit.[…]