France’s Ministry for an Ecological and Solidarity Transition has announced the winners in the ninth round of a tender for commercial and industrial rooftop systems with generation capacities ranging from 100 kW to 8 MW.
The ministry selected 306 projects with a total capacity of around 150 MW. The final average price for projects with a generation capacity of 100-500 kW was €96.49/MWh (€0.09649/kWh), slightly less than the €97.48/MWh recorded in the previous round of procurement. Solar projects ranging from 500 kW to 8 MW in scope posted an average price of €86.17/MWh, down from €86.54 in round eight of the program.
Most successful projects in the bidding had less than 300 kW of generation capacity, according to the results published by French solar energy association Enerplan. Among the larger systems, 24 projects had a capacity greater than 1 MW with the largest a 7.5 MW installation.
In the previous tender in the series, finalized in October, the ministry selected 268 projects with a combined capacity of 129.4 MW. Both rounds were significantly under-subscribed as the ministry intended to secure 300 MW of capacity in each.
The latest tender still represents an increase in the price of commercial solar energy from the €93/MWh returned from round seven of the procurement program, for smaller systems. That earlier auction attracted a price of €99 for larger arrays as 157 MW of capacity was allocated.
