Prices of solar-plus-storage systems to be deployed on France’s island territories have fallen once again in the country’s latest auction, dipping below €100/MWh (US$122.75/MWh).
Results for the third annual edition of France’s tender for projects in territories not connected to the country’s main grid network have been announced, with a total of 57MW of solar-plus-storage projects receiving contracts.
The rules of the tender state that each MWp of solar deployed must be coupled with at least 0.5MW/0.5MWh of battery storage in order to enable greater self-consumption of renewable energy capacity.
Developers working on island territories including Guadeloupe, Corsica and Martinique as well as French Guyana – not an island but not connected to the French grid for obvious reasons – have been awarded contracts for around 50MW of solar PV capacity each year since the auctions began to be held annually in 2016, although the first such auction actually took place in 2012.
The most recent results, revealed by the Ministry for Ecological Transformation, are for a tender round opened in 2019. The 47 projects will receive payment via long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) backed by the government at an average tariff of €98.6 (US$120.81) per MWh. Clean Horizon’s analysts pointed out that this is the first the average prices of projects in one of the tenders has fallen below €100/MWh.
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