French government assigns 75 MW of FIT contracts in solar tender for Corsica and the overseas territories

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France’s Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy has published the list of selected projects of the tender for solar-plus-storage projects and PV power projects for self-consumption it launched in December 2016.

Overall, the tender, which was open to rooftop projects with a capacity between 100 kW and 1.5 MW developed in in Corsica, Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Martinique, Mayotte, and La Réunion, has selected 109 projects totaling 75 MW.

According to a first list of selected developers, the French government has awarded FIT contracts to 67 PV installations with a power of 100 kW to 250 kW coupled with storage systems. These projects will benefit of an average FIT of €113.6 ($134.3)/MWh. The ministry said that this tariff is very competitive compared to final costs of power production in these regions, which is commonly higher than €200/MWh. The government also stressed that the average price offered by the project developers was 40% lower than that registered in the previous tender of the same kind, which was launched in 2015.

La Reunion had the largest share with 22.3 MW of allocated capacity, followed by Guadeloupe (15.6 MW), Guyana (11.1 MW), and Corsica (8.4 MW).

A second list of winners, which relates to rooftop projects ranging in size from 250 kW to 1 MW for self-consumption, shows that selected projects are entitled to receive an average FIT of €34.19 ($40.42)/MWh for every MWh they inject into the grid. The proposed average self-consumption rate for all these projects is over 90%, the government said, “thus showing a real interest of developers in using their own electricity.”

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La Reunion was also in this category the region with the largest share thanks to 4.5 MW of assigned projects, followed by Martinique (2.7 MW), Corsica (2 MW), and Guadeloupe (1.7 MW).

The ministry added that that over 50% of all selected projects have received financing through crowdfunding, and that these projects will receive an additional bonus of €3 per MWh.

 

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