France surpassed 10 GW of grid-connected solar generation capacity in the first three months of the year, after installing almost 7,000 new solar parks, most of them in the sunny south of the country, according to the French Ministry of Energy’s Department of Data and Statistical Studies (SDES).
The nation’s grid-connected PV capacity reached 10.1 GW at the end of March after 182 MW of solar was connected in the first quarter.
PV power generation in the period amounted to 2.3 TWh, an increase of 3% compared to the same window in 2019, according to the SDES figures, as solar power accounted for 1.7% of French electricity consumption in the first three months.
France added 6,933 new installations in the first quarter, with the 182 MW added an annual rise of 7%, the SDES reported. The additional solar plants pushed total capacity in the country to 10,072 MW, up from 9,892 MW at the end of last year.
The first quarter of last year brought 6,994 new installations with a combined capacity of 170 MW.
The new connections this year were mainly concentrated in the southern regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, which between them supplied 122 MW of the new generation capacity.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
The drive for sustainable energy power generation is outstanding and is opening new developments in the process .
However , would it be possible that these tables of land were combined for both farming and power generation because land may become a premium while reducing the facility for food production , if solar power continues to march over it ?
Granted , new more favourable farming methods will have to be implemented .
Should urban areas not be looking at smarter building surfaces which could behave as photovoltaic capacitors from which the stored electrical energy can be drawn on necessary demand ?
Lastly , have plans been compiled for treating the Electronic Waste from expiring photovoltaic panels ?
You’re absolutely right that it’s preferable to install solar panels in urban areas, especially rooftops, rather than taking up land that could be used for agriculture. On the other hand, efforts are being made to integrate farming and solar PV on the same piece of land. For example, by installing solar PV panels in a vertical East-West orientation, productive use can be made of the are between the rows of panels. Another consideration is that PV parks actually tend to be pretty good for nature: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2019/11/21/solar-parks-help-biodiversity-by-recreating-pre-industrial-soil-conditions/
Regarding electronic waste, solar PV panels are included under the EU’s WEEE directive. This means that you pay a contribution towards the cost of recycling end-of-life electronics every time your buy a solar panel. Companies are working on plans to deal with the large end-of-life PV stream that we will see over the coming decades.