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.
France has awarded 172.9MW of solar PV capacity in the most recent auction, according to the country's Ministry of Solidarity and Ecological Transition. The tender was oversubscribed and ended up awarding 32MW more than the planned 140MW capacity, spread between 66 projects.
Chinese solar PV manufacturer Talesun and French renewable energy giant Neoen have entered into a strategic partnership to develop both companies’ presence and expansion in the European PV market.
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.
Spanish oil major Repsol has acquired renewables energy investment platform Asterion Energies from European infrastructure fund Asterion Industrial for €560 million, plus up to €20 million in contingent payments.
Solar module manufacturer REC has shelved the construction of a 4GW French heterojunction module manufacturing facility, citing "changes in market conditions".
Alsace-based Voltec Solar and the Institut Photovoltaïque d’Île-de-France (IPVF) are partnering to create a solar panel gigafactory in France in efforts to boost French domestic PV manufacturing.
The French Senate approved a new legislation that will boost the deployment of renewables in France, with the requirement of outdoors car parks to be covered with solar by law.
