French Guiana

With Paris having retroactively reduced solar feed-in tariff rates guaranteed for 20 years in 2006 and 2010, developer Solar Electric Holding has been unsuccessful in a legal bid to force the commission to decide on the compatibility of the incentive program with EU state aid rules.

French start-up Solaire Box has raised €1.5 million to back its business supplying wooden houses complete with PV rooftops. The buildings cost €1,700-2,000/m² and feature PV modules made by French firm Systovi. The company plans add to add features such as energy storage systems and carbon-free heating.

The feed-in tariff granted reduces each quarter in line with how much solar capacity was installed in the previous three-month period and the drop will be felt more keenly in sun-rich Corsica and the nation’s overseas territories than on the mainland.

Eleven storage projects with a power rating of 50 MW and storage capacity of 54 MWh were selected by the French Energy Regulatory Commission through the tender. One will be in Corsica, while Guadeloupe and Guiana will each have three projects. Martinique and La Réunion will each host two.

The Centrale électrique de l’Ouest guyanais was started by French hydrogen specialist HDF Energy in May. The $90 million plant, expected to generate 50 GWh per year, is being built near Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni in northwestern French Guiana, and will meet the energy needs of the nearby municipality of Mana.

The CEOG scheme consists of a 55 MW solar park and 140 MWh storage station based on hydrogen which, according to the project developer, enables the storage of large amounts of energy for long periods

The tender, which was launched in December 2016, was open to solar-plus-storage projects and PV projects for self-consumption.