France secures 339MW in undersubscribed solar auction – EQ Mag Pro
Average strike prices rise as developers look further north amid land constraints
The French government has awarded 339MW of new ground-mounted PV capacity in its latest solar auction, less than half of the 700MW capacity on offer.
A total of 38 projects were awarded an average tariff of €68.51 per megawatt-hour, an increase of nearly €10 on the average € 58.84/MWh price awarded by the French government to 71 projects in its December 2021 auction.
Q Energy France, formerly RES’ French division, topped the auction by volume with a single 66MW project.
It was followed by Générale du Solare, which bid in a portfolio of four projects totalling 36MW.
Other winners included EDF (29.2MW), TotalEnergies (28.3MW), Sergies (25MW), Photosol (24.7MW) and BayWa r.e. (23.5MW).
Up to 36% of the capacity awarded will be developed in France’s Grand-Est region.
Financial advisory boutique Finergreen, which composed a study of the results, noted an increase in developers bidding further north due to land pressure with higher tariffs bid to compensate for lower irradiation levels.
The auction is the second in France’s programme of PPE2 tenders, with EDF leading the pack to date with a total 142MW of PV awarded, closely followed by Neoen (108MW) and Q Energy France (104MW).
Auctions will be held twice a year until 2026 with the capacity on offer rising from 700MW to 925MW from the third tender onwards.
The deadline for the third tender is set for 30 November 2022.
Source: renews
