France doubles solar power tender to 800 MW

France will double the size of its solar power tender for installations of over 250 kWp to 800 MW, French energy ministry announced yesterday.

The initial 400 MW tender was announced in September 2014 with three batches -- 200 MW for ground-mounted systems, 150 MW for rooftop or building-integrated power plants and 50 MW for solar canopies on parking lots.

The bidding process closed in June 2015 with high demand and very competitive prices, the energy ministry noted in a press release.

Bids for ground-mounted capacity of almost 2000 MW were placed, ten times higher than the 200 MW sought and prices hit an all-time low coming very close to current onshore wind tariffs, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry decided to take advantage of this pricing and expand the ground-mounted capacity by 400 MW. Winning projects will be announced in a few weeks and developers will have two years to build and commission.

The announcement for the doubling of the tender comes just two days after the promulgation of France's new "energy transition law" which sets an ambitious target of sourcing 32% of its energy demand from renewables by 2030.

At the end of July, France also doubled the size of its tender for mid-sized photovoltaic power plants (100 kWp to 250 kWp) to 240 MW.

Last year, photovoltaic power plants in France produced 5.5 TWh, covering a mere 1.2% of the national electricity demand in 2014, yet up from 0.9% a year earlier.

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