Solar projects of 62.8 MW win in oversubscribed French tender

Projects with a combined capacity of 62.8 MW have been selected in the first round of a 300-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) tender in France, the government announced on Friday.

The tender was launched in January 2019 to prepare the country for the decommissioning of its Fessenheim nuclear power station in 2022. While it targeted 60 MW, the competition attracted bids with a total capacity of nearly 200 MW.

The 12 projects allocated in this first round of the procurement initiative will sell their output at an average price of EUR 66.05 (USD 72.2) per MWh, the French Ministry for an Ecological and Solidarity Transition said in a press release. The list of winning schemes includes proposals with capacities ranging between 149 kW and 22.2 MW, all of which will be installed in the Haut-Rhin department of France’s Grand-Est region.

The Fessenheim power plant’s two reactors of 920 MW each are the oldest ones in the country and their closure is part of France’s plan to move away from fossil fuels by 2050. The country will hold two additional rounds for 120 MW of solar each prior to shutting down Fessenheim -- in January 2020 and July 2020, respectively.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.094)

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