France’s PV tender for non-interconnected areas produces average price of €0.0986/kWh

From pv magazine France

France's Ministry of Ecological Transition has reported results from the third round of the 282 MW solar tender for non-interconnected zones (ZNI) launched in 2019, which is open to PV projects – including with those with a storage element – ranging in size from 100 kW to 5 MW.

In the round, 47 projects totaling 57 MW were selected in Corsica, Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte and Guiana. The tender's final average price was €0.0986/kWh, which is lower by $0.10 compared to the average price of the previous round.

Of the allocated capacity, 9.6 MW were assigned to installations with a capacity of between 100 kW and 500 kW on buildings or car park shades while another 13.5 MW were awarded to projects of the same kind with capacity from 500 kW to 1.5 MW. Furthermore, 33.9 MW was assigned in the category for ground-mounted PV plants with a power rating of 500 kW to 5 MW.

“Reunion island secured the largest number of winning projects as well as the greatest cumulative capacity in the round,” said Arthur Omont, from French consultant Finergreen, which analyzed the results of the tender. “The region once again demonstrates its attractiveness for developers with 21.6 MW of allocated power,” he stated. “Guadeloupe follows closely, with 20 MW of allocated capacity.”

The first two winning territories, Réunion and Guadeloupe, accounted for 73% of the total allocated capacity.

The capacity for Corsica was oversubscribed 2.5 times but, by contrast, only 17% of the hoped-for capacity in Martinique was allocated. The results of the third tranche are not yet known for Mayotte and Guiana, where the application period has been postponed because of the health crisis. “So far, 64% of the capacity has been allocated,” the consultant continued.

According to Finergreen, among the ten developers identified, Akuo Energy is far ahead, with 26.2 MW, or 46% of the power to be installed.

French independent power producer Albioma announced that it had obtained 17 projects with a total capacity of 7.6 MW. Finally, Quadran completed the winners' podium with 5.8 MW.

Next in the ranking were nw Energy (3.8 MW), Genergies (2.1 MW), Urbasolar (1.8 MW), Générale du Solaire (1.4 MW), Valeco (1.2 MW), Amarenco (0.9 MW) and Sunzil (0.9 MW).