An Analysis of Capacity Market Mechanism for Solar Photovoltaics in France

Abstract

The energy policy in France that focuses on energy transition and reduction of greenhouse gases, has provided favourable conditions for the deployment of solar photovoltaics. In September 2018 more than 80% of the expected plan of solar photovoltaics capacity for this year was reached. After 2010 the support for solar photovoltaics in France took the form of capacity market mechanism. This paper aims to provide insight to this shift that brought the highest additional installed capacity of solar photovoltaics in France. The objective of this paper is to provide an indicative analysis on how the capacity market mechanism for solar photovoltaics in France has changed over years and how administrative procedures related to this mechanism have been improved. The analysis shows that this system has been favourable to small scale producers even that lately a tendency is seen to move towards large-scale projects. The system has seen a high level of competition, especially between ground-mounted projects, oversubscribing the required volume with more than 12 times. For each MW solar photovoltaics required through calls for tender, 3.5 MW were offered by the submitted dossiers. We found that in 2017 the average price of tenders for solar photovoltaics almost halved compared with the level this indicator had in 2011. For ground mounted solar photovoltaics projects, the prices decreased by 72%. For rooftop installations the decrease accounted for 60%. Despite the improvements done in administrative procedures, still some barriers are in place influencing the speed of the deployment of solar photovoltaics technology in France.