Financing Renewable Energy Sources: What Potential Holds Crowdfunding in France?

Energy transition is not only a government concern. Citizens are also getting increasingly
involved and aware of the importance of this topic. In this paper, we look at crowdfunding as
an innovative financing instrument for renewable energy sources and understand its full
potential. We explore the ecosystem already put in place in France and empirically investigate
crowdfunding platforms and related projects, thanks to a database we created, online
documentation and structured interviews. Our results show that the scale of crowdfunding is
still insufficient to achieve national targets for 2030. We have found little evidence of learning
across the RES platforms and limited support, mainly governmental or community based. The
heterogeneity of the motivations is, on the other side, encouraging and could be leveraged by
renewable energy sources platforms with an investment based business model. The expansion
and success of crowdfunding in France is mainly driven by government mechanism and
regulation frameworks. Such financing technique holds high potential but needs more
apprehension.