France reveals winners of tender for large-scale storage in Corsica and overseas territories

France’s Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) has selected 11 large-scale storage projects in a tender held for the deployment of storage capacity in Corsica and France’s overseas territories.

The projects will have a combined power of 50 MW and a storage capacity of 56.8 MWh.

The additional production costs avoided by implementing the projects will be approximately €450 million ($520m), representing a saving of €370m in public service electricity over 25 years, said the regulator in a statement, without providing further details.

The CRE said Corsica, Guadeloupe, Guiana, Martinique and Réunion are either not connected to the continental electricity network or linked in only a limited manner, and the new storage units will enable them to integrate higher volumes of renewable energy, while reducing electricity costs.

“Storage helps to save production costs and postpone some investments in grid improvement and power production,” the CRE added. “The goal of reconciling security of supply and lower costs with green energy is taking shape. In these territories, we take full measure of the ambitions of the energy transition,” said the president of the CRE, Jean-François Carenco.

La Réunion leads for installed PV

Only one of the projects is in Corsica, a 5 MW/10 MWh storage unit proposed by Corsica Sole. In Guadalupe, two 1 MW/0.6 MWh projects were submitted by NWE while a larger, 5 MW/4  MWh system was proposed by EDF SEI, a unit of France’s state-owned utility EDF. Guiana will host three projects, another 1 MW/0.6 MWh unit, planned by NWE, and two systems to be developed by French renewable energy company Voltalia, which will have capacities of 5 MW/4 MWh and 5 MW/7.3 MWh, respectively.

For Martinique, the CRE has selected another 5 MW/4 MWh unit proposed by EDF SEI, and a 12 MW/12 MWh project submitted by French independent power producer Akuo Energy, while the two projects assigned to La Réunion were proposed by EDF SEI – which will install another 5 MW/3.7 MWh unit – and Corsica Solar, which has planned a 5 MW/10 MWh system.

Among France’s overseas territories, La Réunion has the largest share of installed solar power – 190 MW – followed by Guadeloupe (70 MW), Martinique (66 MW), Guiana (46 MW), and Mayotte (15 MW), according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry for an Ecological and Inclusive Transition.