The French development agency and the environment ministry have a €1.6 million budget to finance novel off-grid projects from companies and NGOs operating with local partners in Africa.

The La Poste Group wants one or more green corporate PPAs, to be procured through a tender. The postal service wants to hedge against volatile energy prices.

The French oil giant and China’s Envision Group are forming a joint venture offering PV systems combined with energy management solutions. Total Eren is also involved in a 100 MW solar project in Uzbekistan.

The exercise will be open to PV projects ranging in size from 200 kW to 5 MW.

At the end of June, France’s installed PV capacity topped 9.3 GW for a 4% increase on the figure recorded at the end of December. Only 397 MW of new capacity was put into operation, however, a much lower figure than the 490 MW deployed in the same period of 2018. Why?

The PV Cycle Association collects and recycles PV waste. Having treated more than 30,000 tons since its creation, it estimates 150,000 tons of PV modules will reach the end of their lifecycle by 2030.

With the 200 hydrogen bikes offered to journalists and world leaders at the G7 summit in Biarritz proving popular, manufacturer Pragma Industries has received an order for 1,000 of them from Chilean president Sebastian Pinera. The company’s founder, Pierre Forté, wants the bike to have a societal impact in developing countries.

Already active through subsidiary Fenix International and start-up Engie PowerCorner, the French energy giant is expanding further by acquiring Mobisol, an off-grid systems specialist with operations in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.

Two procurement exercises will be for ground-mounted PV and will be launched in January and June. A third tender, scheduled for February, will concern rooftop PV.

Engie has raised eyebrows with the installation of several solar benches in Biarritz, southwestern France, as a local official has asked citizens to avoid sitting on them for long periods of time in order to keep their energy yield up. But the authorities over in Cannes are clearly impressed, as the municipal government in the French Riviera resort town has also revealed plans to buy more of the PV benches, which are designed by Croatian startup Include.