Sky-high electricity prices and an increasing urgency to curb fossil fuel led to a surge in European solar additions last year. Jules Scully charts how the continent’s ongoing energy crisis is affecting EU renewables policy and PPA appetite.
Many of France’s large-scale solar projects have had to be set aside temporarily due to pressures from the energy crisis causing poor access to equipment and a rise in the levelised cost of electricity.
France should take “radical and immediate measures” to transform its energy system and rapidly accelerate solar deployment, the country’s PV trade association has said.
French solar asset owners are set for months of uncertainty and potential legal battles as the country’s government moves forward with efforts to retroactively cut feed-in tariffs (FiT) for some older PV power plants.
French solar developers, financiers and utilities have said government plans to cut subsidies for PV project owners would lead to an “economic catastrophe” that could threaten the country’s energy transition.
Almost a third of France’s €100 billion coronavirus recovery package directed towards greener energy policies, as the country ramps up expenditure on hydrogen production.
