Voltalia-Auchan deal brings 61MW solar PPA to France’s budding scene

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
Image credit: Pierro / Flickr

France has witnessed this week the signing of a power purchase agreement (PPA) for new solar, bringing activity to a country where corporate deals have lagged behind those of its European neighbours.

On Monday this week, renewable player Voltalia said it will build a new solar portfolio set to power all French sites of retail multinational Auchan, under PPAs covering a 20-year period and featuring as-of-yet undisclosed prices.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

In a statement, Voltalia – who will take care of development, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of the solar plants – said the PPA-backed solar fleet will go up in Southern France, amid plans for all to reach commissioning between 2021 and 2022.

Voltalia’s deal with Auchan, a 46-billion-euro-revenue giant with retail centres all across the globe, builds on an existing relationship. As Voltalia explained, deals in the past have seen its subsidiary Helexia install solar arrays across Auchan’s facilities and car parks.

The 61MW deal adds to France’s private solar PPA ecosystem, trailing behind more buoyant markets such as Spain, the UK and Germany. One of the few other noteworthy deals – the 143MW solar PPA signed last June to power France’s trains – also had Voltalia as the sponsoring developer.

Rooftop tender boost as Paris eyes green comeback

The signing of a PPA comes at a time when COVID-19 – and the power price slump that it has caused – is said to be disrupting these deals across European solar, with operators in Spain, Italy and elsewhere told to be “creative” as negotiations become trickier.

In France, the state is looking to use government tenders to bolster the momentum towards steep solar targets between 2019 (9.43GW) and 2028 (35.6 – 44.5GW). As PV Tech learned in late March, the country was persuaded by solar firms to delay but not fully cancel auctions.

The latest tender results, out this week, show that France has awarded 152MW of contracts to 306 rooftop solar bidders. The round, the tenth of the rooftop programme, led to average prices of €93.98/MWh (100kWp-500kWp projects) and €83.06/MWh (500kWp-8MWp).

The rooftop auction – structured online to ensure a smooth interaction between solar firms and authorities – comes as France works, in the words of Environment minister Elisabeth Borne, to make the energy transition part of the COVID-19 recovery.

“As we enter a phase of gradual recovery in activity, we are continuing our discussions with the renewable energy sector to support it, to identify the obstacles to this recovery and to give visibility over the coming months,” Borne said as she unveiled the rooftop tender results.

2 December 2025
Málaga, Spain
Understanding PV module supply to the European market in 2026. PV ModuleTech Europe 2025 is a two-day conference that tackles these challenges directly, with an agenda that addresses all aspects of module supplier selection; product availability, technology offerings, traceability of supply-chain, factory auditing, module testing and reliability, and company bankability.
10 March 2026
Frankfurt, Germany
The conference will gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing out to 2030 and beyond.

Read Next

October 3, 2025
Renewables developer Madison Energy Infrastructure has bought the US distributed generation assets of NextEra Energy Resources.
Premium
October 2, 2025
Australia's solar sector delivered a strong September performance in the National Electricity Market (NEM) as the country entered spring, with combined solar PV generation reaching 3,933GWh - a 17.83% increase from August's 3,338GWh.
October 2, 2025
Spanish waste management company Trabede and energy firm Greening Group will build a solar module recycling plant in Granada, Andalusia, Spain.
October 2, 2025
The European solar sector will lose around 5% of its jobs in 2025, the first contraction in employment for the sector in nearly a decade.
October 2, 2025
PV products using perovskite technology could assume a dominant position within the next ten years, according to module producer Qcells' CTO.
October 2, 2025
FRV Australia has announced the completion of its largest solar project to date, the 300MW Walla Walla Solar Farm in New South Wales.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
October 7, 2025
Manila, Philippines
Solar Media Events
October 7, 2025
San Francisco Bay Area, USA
Solar Media Events
October 21, 2025
New York, USA
Solar Media Events
November 25, 2025
Warsaw, Poland