The French Minister for Energy and the Environment announced last Monday that the government was launching an aggressive new program to propel the country to the forefront of solar energy development. The announcement by Minister Jean-Louis Borloo was made at the annual Grenelle meeting of French environmental stakeholders. Minister Borloo outlined 50 actions the Sarkozy government would take to substantially increase the role of renewable energy in France.
As part of its commitment to the European Union, Borloo said that France will supply 23% of its energy with renewables by 2020. Most dramatically, Borloo said that France intends to become one of the world’s leaders in the development of solar photovoltaic technology and will increase the supply of solar-generated electricity 400 times by 2020.
To do that, France will create a new tariff category for commercial buildings of €0.45/kWh (US $0.57/kWh). This is intended to aid businesses, factories and farmers to take profitable advantage of their large rooftops. As a measure of the government’s seriousness, there will be no limit on the size of commercial rooftop projects that qualify for the tariff. For comparison, the French commercial tariff for 2009 is higher than that for Germany, the current world leader in solar PV development.
France has been a solar energy laggard in Europe. By mid 2008 there was only 18 megawatts (MW) of solar PV installed on the mainland. (France still maintains several overseas territories.) However, changes to the country’s system of Advanced Renewable Tariffs (Tarife Equitable) in 2006 resulted in a flood of new projects. There is a huge backlog of some 12,000 systems representing 400 MW that are awaiting connection.
To simplify interconnection of solar PV and reduce future backlogs with the quasi privatized state utility, Electricité de France, the government will implement an internet registration process for projects up to 450 kW.
Small solar PV systems less than 3 kW will also be exempted from certain taxes and fees as well. Tariffs for wind energy will remain the same, though wind projects will have to undergo new siting requirements.
– from renewableenergyworld. 21 Nov 2008.