Elisabeth Borne, French minister of the ecological and inclusive transition, has announced 288 PV and wind projects have been allocated from various recent tenders, with 253 of them solar.
Some 88 large scale PV projects, which will have a total generation capacity of 649 MW secured contracts to supply electricity for a final average price of €62.11/MWh.
A further 39 facilities were allocated under an ‘innovative PV’ tender, adding another 104 MW of generation capacity, around 40 MW of it from agrivoltaic projects. Those schemes will sell power for an average €82.80/MWh.
In a separate procurement exercise, the government selected 12 solar projects with a total 94.2 MW capacity to be based at the decommissioned Fessenheim nuclear plant. Ground-mounted projects in the tender will supply power for an average of €55.78/MWh, small rooftops – with a capacity of up to 500 kW – for €98.50 and larger rooftop arrays €92/MWh.
Overseas
A tender held for self-consumption solar projects allocated another 30 schemes with an aggregate 11.8 MW capacity. The developers of those schemes will receive an average premium of €15.97/MWh to top up the wholesale electricity price.
And another 84 PV projects were successful in an overseas and Corsica tender which will secure 101.7 MW more solar capacity. In that exercise, 38 solar-plus-storage projects, amounting to 54.8 MW, will be paid an average €108.20/MWh of electricity supplied; 37 solar-only schemes with an aggregate 44.1 MW capacity will receive an average €96.20; and nine self-consumption facilities will receive an average top-up premium of €44.10/MWh.
Support
Minister Borne held a teleconference call with representatives of the clean energy industry to announce the results and also said developers facing difficulty with projects due to the Covid-19 pandemic will be supported by the government in three ways.
With solar projects having already been granted leeway as the health crisis unfolded, commissioning deadlines will now be further relaxed, at different rates depending on the clean energy technology used.
The government has reversed plans to reduce the payments made to the owners of small rooftop PV systems, with the payment level scheduled to have been reduced yesterday, and the minister said the timeline for the next set of project tendering periods would also be adjusted.
Publication of France’s multi-year energy program, which was expected in March, has also been delayed.
