France's renewable energy targets at risk as new installations tumble in H1 2013

Sep 2, 2013 - France risks missing its renewable energy targets as its new photovoltaic (PV) and wind installations dropped significantly over the first half of the year, local renewable energy association SER warned last week noting that the government had been alerted to the downward trend for more than one year now.

France has committed to achieve a 23% share of renewables in its gross final energy consumption by 2020 thus contributing to a combined 20% share for the European Union (EU).

However, France's installed wind energy capacity totalled 7,821 MW at the end of June with 200 MW of new installations connected to the grid over the first half of the year, which represents a drop of 26% compared with the same period a year earlier. Furthermore, installed PV capacity slumped by 73% during the first six months of this year with only 207 MW adding to a total of 4,263 MW at the end of June, according to figures provided by the country's directorate of the general commission on sustainable development CGDD.

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