New wind, solar power grid connections in France decline in 2012

Mar 4, 2013 - New connections of wind and solar power capacity to France's electricity grid went down by 9% and 39%, respectively, last year, according to data released by the French ministry of ecology and energy on Friday.
Thus, in 2012 a total of 753 MW of wind energy and 1,079 MW of photovoltaic power were connected to the national grid. For comparison, in 2011 the respective figures for wind and solar capacity stood at 830 MW and 1,759 MW.
The official data showed that the slowdown was particularly visible for the wind sector in the first half of the year and for the solar sector in the second half.
In fact, numerous solar power projects benefited from more favourable feed-in tariffs until June 30, 2012.
Despite the slowdown, France's installed wind capacity jumped by 11% year-on-year to 7,562 MW, exceeding the threshold of 7,500 MW. At present, wind power accounts for 3% of the French energy mix, versus 2.4% in 2011. For comparison, France has set an objective to have an installed onshore wind capacity of 19 GW by 2020.
Last year, France's installed solar capacity surged by 37% to 4 GW.

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