France offers €1 billion investment opportunity

  • France is pushing forwards with its plans for renewable energy generation with an investment of nearly €1 billion.
    France is pushing forwards with its plans for renewable energy generation with an investment of nearly €1 billion.

Perhaps not in the way Enerplan wished in a statement to France’s new president, Francois Hollande, but the country is pushing forwards with its plans for renewable energy generation. Delphine Batho, the new minister for ecology, sustainable development and energy, announced the results of two tenders for solar plants.

The tenders are expected to generate a cumulative investment of nearly €1 billion within the next two years and provide enough energy to meet the demands of 150,000 homes.

The first tender is for installations between 100kW and 250kW for 109 projects with a total capacity of 21MW.

The second tender is for facilities greater than 250kW. With a total capacity of 450MW, the government will spread this over seven technologies. At the end of the selection process, 105 projects were selected with a total capacity of 520MW.

The government has requested the General Council for economy, industry, energy and technology and the General Council for environment and sustainable development to produce a report detailing the competitiveness of the solar industry in France. Topics of discussion will also include decreasing the production cost of solar electricity and developing innovative technologies.

Batho will announce the details for the next solar tender following the distribution of the report on September 13.

 

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