France has registered zero or negative energy prices for 90% of days in May 2025, according to data from energy storage developer Storio Energy.
This is an increase of a trend already registered in April 2025, when 80% of the days registered zero or negative prices.
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The first day of the month registered a negative price of -€118/MWh (-US$135/MWh), which is the second lowest price ever observed, according to the French company. Two other days in May – 10th and 11th – also registered negative prices of €100/MWh or above. Not only has the country registered a record negative price during a single hour, it has also witnessed three days were prices remained negative between 10am until 4pm, with two of these days registering €0/MWh price at 5pm.
“This upheaval (which was expected but still surprises many people with its speed) is the consequence of a surplus of electricity production compared to demand, particularly during hours of high solar production,” wrote Jean-Yves Stephan, co-founder of Storio Energy, in a LinkedIn post.
According to Storio Energy, the average price for the entire month of May was of €19/MWh, numbers not reached since the Covid pandemic in April and May 2020.
For the first time this year, the average price of electricity between 10am until 5pm was negative, while prices skyrocketed in later hours of the day, compared to pervious months this year.
On average, energy prices have increased year-on-year, with a 47% rise in prices between January and May from €49/MWh in 2024 to €72/MWh in 2025. The average spread between maximum and minimum price also increased in that same period by 61% from €59/MWh in 2024 to €95/MWh in 2025.
France adds 1.4GW solar PV in Q1 2025
In other France-related news, the country added 1.4GW of solar PV during the first three months of 2025, according to the French Statistical Data and Studies Department (SDES).
This is a 27% increase from the 1.1GW added during the same period in 2024, and brings the cumulative installed solar PV in France to 26.8GW at the end of March 2025.
Most of the solar PV installed came from projects with a power higher than 100kW, with over 1GW of the total 1.4GW. Projects between 100kW and 250kW power contributed with 624MW of the total added solar PV in Q1 2025.
Per region, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, in southwestern France, has the most cumulative solar PV installed with 5.9GW, followed by neighbouring region Occitania with 4.7GW and eastern region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes closing the podium with 3.2GW of total solar PV as of the end of March 2025. The three regions have also been the leading regions in newly installed solar PV in Q1 2025.
Electricity production from solar PV during Q1 2025 was of 5.4TWh, a 40% increase from the same period a year ago and represented 3.8% of France’s total electricity consumption.
