France Awards 800 MW of Solar Contracts in Tender

The French government has awarded 800 megawatts (MW) worth of solar contracts to 212 bidders which will lead to a combined investment of nearly one billion euros, the energy and environment ministry said in a statement on Friday.

 

The contracts are for installations with capacities of 0.25 to 12 megawatts (MW) and include ground-mounted solar as well as photovoltaic panels on the roofs of parking lots and supermarkets.

 

Compared to the previous solar tender 20 months ago, feed-in tariffs fell between 15 and 23 percent and came in at 82 megawatt-hour for ground-mounted solar, 124 euros/MWh for small roof installations and 129 euros/MWh for large roof installations.

 

A new solar tender will be launched early next year, the ministry said.

 

Solar power capacity has grown slowly in France compared with Germany, Spain or Italy. It had 5,600 MW of installed capacity at end-2014, compared with more than 38,000 GW in Germany.

 

This week, French energy group Neoen inaugurated a utility-scale solar farm, Europe's biggest, with a capacity of 300 MW< or about a third of the capacity of a nuclear plant.


(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; editing by Jason Neely)