France’s Reden halts solar module production

French PV project developer and solar module manufacturer Reden has announced the closure of its solar panel assembly facility in Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, located in the Aveyron department of the Occitanie region in southern France.

Commissioned in December 2024, the 200 MW factory was designed to enable the energy producer to control parts of the photovoltaic value chain. However, less than three years later—and after nearly €4.5 million in production line upgrades—the outlook has turned bleak following the announcement late last week that operations would be discontinued.

“It was no longer financially sustainable,” Florence Burhin, the group’s communications manager, told pv magazine France.

Faced with intense competition from Asian manufacturers and the absence of a meaningful European industrial preference in procurement decisions, the assembly plant quickly became loss-making. With its competitiveness eroded and a structural deficit deemed impossible to overcome, Reden opted to limit its losses before the situation could threaten the continuity and long-term viability of its other activities, particularly in agrivoltaics.

“The competitiveness gap with Asian players is becoming too wide. This left us with no other economically viable option,” internal sources said. “European and French initiatives, such as the Net-Zero Industry Act, the Industrial Accelerator Act, and the Solar Pact, have yet to deliver sufficiently tangible results to support photovoltaic manufacturing in Europe or France.”

Nine employees are directly affected by the closure of the assembly plant. According to information obtained by pv magazine France, all of them will be offered internal redeployment opportunities within the group.

Following the closure of Reden’s plant and the shutdown of Photowatt, a former EDF Renewables subsidiary, in January 2025, Alsace-based Voltec is now the only remaining French manufacturer of photovoltaic panels.