France

Falling module prices will help PV post another record year after an estimated 132 GW was installed worldwide in 2020, according to an energy transition investment trends report published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

European renewables, including Spanish solar, made big gains as energy demand recovered before the second wave of Covid infections. Nuclear was a notable loser, in part because clean energy volumes in the north of the continent drove down power prices sufficiently to make reactors uncompetitive.

The two French energy giants have announced a partnership agreement to develop, build and operate the Masshylia project – a 40 MW electrolyzer coupled with solar parks at the Total biorefinery in Châteauneuf-les-Martigues, in the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d´Azur.

The two French companies have announced Horizeo, a massive project that includes a solar plant, battery storage, a green hydrogen production unit, a data center, and an agrivoltaic facility. The huge project is scheduled for completion in 2026.

The solar park will host sheep grazing and sell power to green energy provider Enercoop under a 30-year PPA.

The French government allocated 57 MW of PV capacity across 47 projects through the tender. Réunion and Guadeloupe were the territories with the largest allocated capacities.

The French energy regulator has allocated 146.2 MW in the procurement exercise. The final average price was €0.0815/kWh.

The representatives of the French solar industry have already mobilized against the controversial measure and said they are studying all possible legal actions.

Each of the nations, like Greece, will have gigawatt-plus solar additions in 2024, according to Solarpower Europe, enough to carve out a 3% slice of an anticipated 35 GW regional market.

Pioneering solar projects which signed ten-year feed-in tariff agreements will soon need to operate free of subsidy and with local authorities like the City of London starting to embrace direct contracts with renewables generators, the PPA market could be set for another turbo charge.