Fifth rooftop auction sees farmers taking 40 percent of 230
megawatts.
France’s latest rooftop solar auction saw prices dropping 5
percent compared to a previous round in April, according to the government.
The tender, for 230 megawatts of rooftop solar across 392
projects, saw costs falling from an average of €80.80 (USD $92.77 at current
exchange rates) in April to €76.80 ($88.22) per megawatt-hour.
Larger projects within the tender went as low as €72.20
($82.87) per megawatt-hour, marking a record for the French market, the
government said.
François de Rugy, the recently appointed French Minister of
Ecology, said in a press statement in September: “Once again, solar
installations [are] show increasing competitiveness.”
Based on government figures, solar power in France has fallen in
cost by about 62 percent since 2011, when prices were at €190 ($218) per
megawatt-hour.
The government press release noted that 40 percent of the
projects awarded in the round were on agricultural buildings, potentially
providing new revenue streams for farmers.
The other big winner in the tender was the French solar
developer Amarenco France, which came away with 32 megawatts of projects.
The capacity means Amarenco has now won more than 100
megawatts in government-sponsored rooftop tenders to date, putting it “far
ahead” of competitors Urbasolar, with 81 megawatts, and Solar Technology, with
68 megawatts, the company said in a press release.
Amarenco will be investing €120 million ($138 million) in
developing the projects, the company said. Last month’s tender was the fifth of
nine auction rounds that have been scheduled to take place every four months
after kicking off in March 2017.
The tenders are intended to award capacity for systems of
between 100 kilowatts and 8 megawatts. The largest plant in the latest tender
was 7.7 megawatts.
France’s next rooftop solar tender round is scheduled for
Nov. 5 and will be for 300 megawatts of capacity, the government said. France
also runs separate auction schemes for ground-mounted PV projects and
self-consumption systems.
The self-consumption scheme is designed to offer 1.35
gigawatts across nine tenders spread over three years. Last month it saw the
government awarding 20 megawatts across 48 projects.
Although projects are eligible to sell electricity back to
the grid at a rate of €26.80 ($30.77), “the average rate of self-consumption of
the winners in the tender is very high,” said the authorities, “on the order of
98 percent.”
According to Reuters, the latest data from the ministry
shows France is lagging on its 10.2-gigawatt target. “Total installed solar
capacity was at 8,500 megawatts as of the end of June,” Reuters said.
By 2023, France aims to install between 18.2 gigawatts and
20.2 gigawatts of solar as part of plans to achieve a 32 percent share of
renewable energy generation by 2030.
The country upped its solar aspirations last December, when
de Rugy’s predecessor, environmentalist Nicolas Hulot, increased the country’s
annual capacity target from 1.45 gigawatts to 2.45 gigawatts.
But Hulot’s resignation last month raised concerns over
France’s solar and wind energy ambitions. De Rugy was expected to steer energy
policy back toward nuclear power, which makes up 75 percent of the electricity generation mix at
present.
It is unclear if this position will change with the
publication of the latest
report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, which
predicts “rapid, fair-reaching and unprecedented changes in all
aspects of society” in the next decade or so stemming from changes in the
climate.
Following the release of the report, France’s President Macron
appeared to call for greater urgency in fighting manmade climate change. “We
have everything we need to combat climate change,” he said via Twitter. “But everyone has to act now!”
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