The French authorities have published new solar statistics for France, mainly by grouping together connection data provided by grid operators Enedis, RTE, EDF-SEI, and the national energy regulator, CRE.
Due to pandemic-related delays in connection procedures, installations were much lower than in previous years. Between January and the end of June, less than 1% of 13,103 new PV arrays were bigger than 250 kW. These represented 44% of the newly connected power. Installations smaller than 9 kW accounted for nearly 84% of the total.
The regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur accounted for 67% of all new additions in the first half of 2020. The four regions also have the highest installed capacities in the country, representing 70% of the total power connected in France at the end of the first half.
Around 6.7 TWh of solar energy was generated in the first half of 2020, compared to 5.9 TWh in the first six months of 2019. The authorities attributed the increase to high solar radiations levels in April and May. Solar production thus represented 3% of total French electricity consumption, up 0.6 point from the previous year.
