The French government will introduce a new feed-in-tariff for photovoltaic solar plants offering a higher rate for plants made in France, ecology minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said.
The Tuesday announcement, initially reported by AFP, was confirmed by the ministry Wednesday.
Under the new tariff, solar plants with more than 60% of added value produced in France would receive a premium of at least 10% above current rates, which vary according to plant size.
Kosciusko-Morizet was accompanying President Nicolas Sarkozy Tuesday on a visit to a factory owned by panel maker Photowatt in southeastern France, where he pledged his support for the company, currently in administration.
Cheap solar panels from Asia have put several large European and US manufacturers in financial trouble, including the widely publicized bankruptcy of US firm Solyndra. European feed in tariffs for solar plants have also been slashed as national governments looked to reel in public funding, which has slowed solar growth in Europe.
The new tariff mechanism favoring French-made plants would follow a similar tariff already in place in Italy, which had not suffered major opposition in terms of conforming with European regulations, Kosciusko-Morizet said, according to AFP.
"For the moment, the Italian tariff has not been attacked, so we are not going to refrain from giving a helping hand to French industry," the minister said, AFP reported.
SER, the French renewables energy lobby group, reacted with caution to the announcement.
"If this measure appears to go in the right direction, we are waiting to be informed of the mechanisms that the government is going to propose to put it into practice," SER said in a statement.
Currently, France's solar feed-in-tariffs are paid by state-controlled EDF to small-scale solar producers and are adjusted every quarter, taking into account the rate of new connections. Larger plants must go through a competitive tendering process.
The French government aims to have over 5.4 GW of solar power installed by 2020. With over 1.6 GW of installed supply and 2 GW of projects in the development stage late last year, the country is well in advance of its 2020 target.
