France has submitted its updated National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) with an increased target for solar PV capacity of up to 60GW by 2030.
The new draft aims to add at least 14GW more than the previous NECP, submitted in 2019, which targeted 40GW of installed solar capacity by 2030.
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By 2035, France aims to increase its cumulative installed solar capacity to between 75-100GW, although this could be a lesser increase compared to neighbouring countries such as Spain and Italy, which are targeting installations of 76GW and 80GW of solar PV by 2030, respectively. Spain in particular plans to nearly double its previous target for solar PV.
Nuclear seems to continue to be an important part of the country’s goal to decarbonise its electricity, as shown in the NECP draft, with 104 mentions of the word “nuclear” compared to 19 for “solar”, with many of these related to solar thermal. Last year, nuclear power accounted for 62.2% of France’s electricity production, compared to 8.7% from wind and just 4.2% from solar.
France installed solar PV capacity at the end of 2022 sat at 15.7GW, of which 2.6GW was added during last year and accounted for more than half of the total renewable capacity added in 2022, which reached over 5GW.
Among other updated target is France’s plan to add between 5.5-7GW of solar capacity per year. Most of the capacity addition is expected to come from utility-scale solar, with 65%, while rooftop commercial and industrial would account for 25% and residential solar the remaining 10%.
At the upstream level, France has seen an increased activity from start-ups, with a number of announcements made this year for new module assembly plants, which are expected to be operational in the coming years. These include Carbon’s plan to build a 5GW/3.5GW cell and module assembly plant in the south of France; Holosolis’ goal of building a 5GW module assembly plant targeting rooftop residential, commercial and industrial rooftop and agriPV; and Heliup’s aim to secure €10 million (US$10.5 million) for a 100MW PERC lightweight module assembly line that is expected to be operational during 2024.
Germany targets more solar capacity than Italy, Spain and France combined
Despite the deadline set for 30 June 2023, several countries had had yet to upload their updated NECP drafts, among them France and Germany, which published its own earlier this month.
As the leading country in the EU in installed solar capacity, Germany’s new target is unmatched across the 27 countries as it expects to reach 215GW of installed solar PV capacity by 2030, with an annual goal of 22GW, before reaching 400GW by 2040. Both targets for 2030 and 2040 were already announced last year by the German government when it updated its solar targets for the end of the decade.
Germany’s new NECP goal for solar PV more than doubles the previous expectation from the country that was set at 98GW in the 2019 NECP. The new target of 215GW by 2030 is greater than the combined planned capacity of Italy, Spain and France, which are aiming for 80GW, 76GW and 54-60GW, respectively.
Earlier this year, Germany launched an expression of interest to attract 10GW of solar PV manufacturing to boost the domestic supply chain.
There are still a few countries to yet submit an updated NECP draft, which needs to be submitted to the European Commission by June 2024.