France

After being delayed from 2023, the update to the PPE was submitted to the public for consultation in November 2024, with the goal of doubling the rhythm of PV development (5.5 GWAC/year to 7 GWAC/year) to reach 75-100 GW in 2035, as proposed in the 2023 draft Energy-Climate Strategy. It proposes a distribution of 55% residential/ commercial rooftop systems; 10% large-scale industrial rooftop systems; 10% small ground mounted systems and the remaining 25% as utility scale ground mounted and AgriPV systems. More AgriPV and the development of Gigawatt factories for local manufacturing are also components of the draft documents. 

National policy is built around reaching the PPE targets, with a series of support mechanisms including Tenders for systems over 500 kWp (separate calls for systems on buildings, ground-mounted systems, systems in overseas territories, innovative systems and others). Winning candidates are selected on a mostly price-based score, although some calls have other criteria to encourage lower carbon footprints and preservation of natural spaces. Building-applied systems under 500 kW have access to feed-in tariffs and in some cases capital subsidies. Most systems accessing the feed-in tariff opt for net-billing with self-consumption as feed-in tariffs have dropped well below electricity consumption prices. 

As module prices dropped and new capacity increased, the mechanisms for reducing tariffs with increased capacity were adjusted, increasing target volumes but decreasing tariffs.  

The much-awaited publication of feed-in tariffs for systems between 100 kW and 500 kW in overseas departments and territories in January was accompanied by dispositions for curtailment. Unpublished as of early 2025, a feed-in tariff for ground mounted systems under 1 MW was submitted to the Higher Electricity Council after several years of discussion with industry. 

By 4th quarter 2024, the increasing volume of systems requesting feed-in tariffs (6.5 GWDC in 2024 vs 5.1 GWDC in 2023 and 3.8 GWDC in 2022) triggered inter-ministry discussions amid significant budget projections, and industry consultations were opened to evaluate modified mechanisms including fixed quotas and a return to simplified tenders. 

Policies for mandating solar on buildings and sealed parking lots came into effect over 2024 and 2025. Modifications to permitting procedures were applied in 2024, with the goal of simplifying for parking canopies on one hand and increasing the coordination of consultative processes for utility scale systems on the other hand. Pre-identification of solar as being “in the public interest” may allow exemptions to some environmental procedures. The definition, by local authorities, of renewable energy acceleration zones gives access to further simplifications and was created to give them more control over system siting.

The National Energy Research Strategy is a focal point for various organisations including: the National Alliance for the Coordination of Research for Energy (ANCRE) that groups 16 research organizations and competitive clusters, coordinating national energy research efforts; the National Association for Technology Research, a public-private network that produced the 2023 report “Game changers for the energy transition 2030-2050”, with specific recommendation for PV research including focusing on upstream research, tandem and perovskites, new supports for integrated PV (buildings, vehicles etc.), digital twins, eco-conception and materials re-use.   

France’s public financing of Research and Development for photovoltaics was 80 million EUR in 2022 (latest data), whilst private funding is present in collaborative work through the main laboratories and in-house for a few specialized applications.  

The “Institut Photovoltaïque d’Ile-de-France” (IPVF) and the “Institut National de l’Energie Solaire” (INES), the major research centers, are equipped with industrial research platforms and collaborate with laboratories and industry across France and Europe.  

IPVF works on perovskite, on silicon tandem modules and III-V materials (and others), with a clear goal of industrial transfer. 2023 included a partnership with Holosolis, future GW scale manufacturer working towards 2T perovskite on cSI tandem, and a number of projects developing perovskite technologies. 

INES works with industrial partners on a wide range of subjects, as well as fundamental research on silicon and cell technologies and applied research on module technologies. Recent work includes low carbon modules, low silver cells (module at < 14mg/Wp), record efficiencies for tandem perovskite/silicon cells (up to 29.8% in September) and heterojunction silicon cells, flexible perovskite modules, and solar (TOPCon, HJT) for space applications with a number of innovations carried by spin off companies (ultra-light modules, for example).  

The principal state agencies that are financing research are:  

– the National Research Agency (ANR), which finances projects through topic-specific and generic calls and also through tax credits for internal company research. 

The French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) runs its own calls for R&D on renewable energies and supports PhD students. It is the French relay for the IEA PVPS and M-ERA.net pan-European network. 

The annual new capacity in 2024 grew more than 150% to 6 GWDC, up from 4 GWDC in 2023 and 2.8 GWDC in 2022, reaching a cumulative capacity of approximately 30.4 GWDC (25.3 GWAC). The number of new installations passed the 1.1 million mark in 2024 – most (nearly 95% in number) are residential or small rooftop systems, but they only represent about 20% of cumulative capacity. However, the fastest growing segment was for systems between 100 kWp and 500 kWp, as projects planned in the 2021 feed-in tariff framework are progressively completed and connected to the grid. Growth in this sector has seen an increase in the number of “full injection” systems (i.e. without self-consumption). Storage continued to grow, with just over 4 000 new systems added in the residential sector (and approximately 100 additional new storage systems for 150 MW added to the medium voltage grid not linked to photovoltaic systems). 

The stock of systems in the grid connection queue (fully permitted systems only) reached 45 GWAC (37 GWAC), up from 26 GWDC in 2023 – although less than half are in the distribution grid managed by the monopolistic DSO Enedis, the rest either on the high voltage grid managed by RTE or in overseas territories and smaller municipality managed grids. The publication of feed in tariffs for non-interconnected zones (i.e. French Caribbean, Corsica), has increased the stock there fourfold. There is much interrogation on the quality of projects in the queue, as only about 35% of large-scale systems (10% / 3 GWDC in capacity) over 250Wc have signed preliminary grid connection contracts, where nearly 40% in number / 75% in capacity has for systems below this peak power. 

2.9 GWDC of capacity was called / 2.7 GWDC awarded in tenders operating on contract-for-difference (CfD) contracts in 2024 (down from 4.6 GWDC called / 2.4 GWDC awarded in 2023). With a 2-to-3-year lead time between publishing winners and grid connection, at least 5 GWDC of large-scale systems in the grid connection queue should be connected over 2025 and 2026. Nearly all tenders were well subscribed as market conditions become less attractive for corporate PPA’s and state backed CfD contracts become more secure. 

Continued low module prices, large volumes in grid connection queues and a backlog of C&I projects waiting for contracts should see 2025 volumes progress once more, reaching between 7.5 GWDC and 8.5 GWDC.