This month, the French Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition awarded 960MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity through different tenders, and a total of 288 PV and wind projects have been allocated. These measures show that the French Government is doing all it can to ensure that the renewable energy sector receives the adequate support that is needed during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Out of the 288 PV and wind projects awarded in April 2020, 253 were solar PV projects – and of these 88 were large-scale projects with an installed capacity of 649MW and awarded at an average tariff of €62.11/MWh. Furthermore, the government selected 12 of the 288 projects with a total capacity of 94.2MW to be based at the decommissioned Fessenheim nuclear plant. The average tariff for ground-mounted projects was €55.78/MWh, while the average tariff for small rooftop projects with a capacity of up to 500 kW was €98.50/MWh and large rooftop arrays was €92/MWh.

Somik Das, Power Analyst at GlobalData, comments:“The French Government is supporting solar project developers in three essential ways – relaxing deadlines for commissioning, reversing plans to reduce small rooftop solar PV tariffs, and adjusting the timeline for the next set of tenders. In the current pandemic situation, uncertainty looms large over the renewable sector. In these times, such initiatives from the government will prove to be a real boon. These lessen the distress of the developers and will help them perform better in the second half of the fiscal year.”