France allocates 451.9 MW in ninth tender for large scale PV

From pv magazine France

France’s energy regulator, the CRE, has announced the results of the ninth tender for large scale PV.

According to French analyst Finergreen, the French authorities allocated 451.9 MW of PV capacity in the procurement exercise.

The first project category, including ground-mounted projects exceeding 5 MW in size, accounted for most of the allocated capacity, with 216 MW, although the French government had hoped to assign 400 MW for this plant typology. The average final price for this category was €0.05338/kWh.

In the second category, comprising ground-mounted PV installations with a capacity between 500 kW and 5 MW, the final average price was €0.06225/kWh and the total allocated capacity was 120 MW, with the CRE having sought to assign 170 MW.

In the third category, including PV projects on parking shades, with a capacity of 500 kW to 10 MW, the allocated capacity was 70 MW and the final average price €0.08096/kWh.

French independent power producer Neoen secured the largest amount of capacity, with 73.8 MW, followed by Engie, with 61.4 MW and Total Quadran, with 49.4 MW. These three companies were able to secure 40% of the total capacity.

The overall final average price of the tender was 4.7% higher than that of the eighth procurement exercise.

Finergreen’s analysis notes that since the first tender, average prices have fallen by 13.7%: firstly, the prices fell by 16.4% between the first and fourth rounds, then there was a rebound in the average tariff of 10% between the fourth and the sixth rounds, then the tariff again began a new downward trend in the seventh and eighth rounds, with a drop of 10.4% compared to the average tariff of the sixth round, leaving the average tariff at a level close to that experienced during of the fourth exercise.