France puts onshore wind vs solar in 200-MW tender

The French government on Monday increased the volume of solar auctions in the country to 2.45 GW per year and launched a tender for 200 MW of onshore wind or solar, seeking to assess the competitiveness of each technology.

The latest tender was announced by energy minister Nicolas Hulot as “experimental” with the aim to identify the advantages and disadvantages of technology-neutral tenders. Eligible projects will be those with capacities of between 5 MW and 18 MW, with assessment to be carried out solely on the basis of their economic competitiveness.

Proposals will be accepted by September 3, 2018. Winning projects will get certain incentives, which will be higher for schemes with citizen participation.

At the same time, Hulot said the volume of solar tenders in the country will be raised by 1 GW to 2.45 GW per year as part of the country’s plan to expand solar power development and achieve a 32% renewables share by 2030. Following its latest auctions, France will add 1 GW of ground-mounted and 300 MW of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) capacity.

The volumes increase will become effective gradually, from March and June, when the country will hold its next auctions for rooftop and ground-mounted PV plants.

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