France

The French solar market grew by 59% in the first six months of this year, mainly driven by large-scale solar. Overall, the country’s cumulative installed PV power has surpassed 8.5 GW. However, it looks likely that the government’s 10.2 GW 2018 target will be missed.

The first movers are two big energy consumers – the Airport of Paris and state-owned railway company, SNCF – which have decided to consider bids from renewable energy producers. According to Xavier Daval from local association, SER-Soler, private PPAs will be able to offer the stable electricity prices currently being granted by nuclear power, over the next few years.

In the fourth of six tenders totaling 4 GW planned for the utility-scale segment, the French government selected 103 solar projects. In the next two, and final, rounds, around 1.7 GW of additional solar capacity will be assigned.

The U.S. firm expects France will reach a cumulative capacity of 28 GW by 2027, 3 GW more than previously forecast. The reasons for the increase are the renewed efforts of the French government to push for more solar, and the solar plans of big energy players such as EDF and Total.

French solar project developer, Solstyce and rooftop PV specialist, Enerpur are merging into a single company; while France-based building materials provider, Terreal has become the largest shareholder of mounting system provider, GSE Integration.

Through the tender, the French government intends to allocate 200 MW for ground-mounted PV plants up to 30 MW, and 100 MW for rooftop solar systems up to 8 MW. Projects financed through crowdfunding will be granted the €3/MWh bonus, which is also included in all of the national tenders.

The huge 1.2 GW PV facility is currently being planned in the Lot-et-Garonne Department, southern France. The project’s required investment is expected to reach around €1 billion. Five big solar players are currently interested in developing the plant.

The failure of the tender depended on a series of factors, the most important of which was the clarification of policy around fiscal exemptions for solar self-consumption in the case of third-party investment.

The French energy giant has consolidated its new clean energy focus through the acquisition. The Langa group is expected to have operational PV assets of 165 MW in France by the end of the year.