Subsidies plummeted in the first of six tender rounds for
large-scale ground-based solar power in France, results published by the energy
ministry on Thursday showed.
This is likely to squeeze profits for other sources of
electricity as the cost of generation from ground-based solar comes close to
parity with combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs).
There were 79 winners of a combined 500MW of capacity in the
first solar PV tender, which ran from 9 January–3 February, the ministry said.
The tender was the first to be held under the country’s multi-annual energy
plan, adopted in 2016, to drive investment in solar power over the next three
years.
Most of the installations will be built in the south of
France, the list of winning developers showed.
The government has set a target to have between 18.2GW and
20.2GW of solar PV capacity installed by 2023.
