France boosts PV deployments with 1 GW added in Q1

France brought online 1 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) parks in the first quarter of 2024, marking a year-on-year rise in new deployments and reaching a cumulative installed capacity of 21.1 GW.

A total of 59,366 solar farms started feeding electricity into the grid in January-March, shows data by the French energy ministry’s Department of Data and Statistical Studies (SDES). The new installations, with a combined capacity of 1,013 MW compare with 639 MW of capacity commissioned a year back.

About a third of the newly-connected plants, totalling 347 MW, have individual capacities of between 100 kW and 250 kW, while plants larger than 250 kW were responsible for 329 MW of the new deployments. By region, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitania and Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes were the three departments with the highest quarterly capacity additions, collectively accounting for 47% of the total.

The output of France’s PV parks stood at 4 TWh in January-March, rising from 3.6 TWh a year earlier. Photovoltaics covered 2.9% of the national power consumption, a decline from 3.2% in the first quarter of 2023.

At the end of March, the country had 27.3 GW of solar projects in the pipeline, up 22% from a year back. The total includes 6.3 GW of schemes with secured grid-connection agreements.

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