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The French Photovoltaic Market 2007/08 - Another Path for Photovoltaics
Eupd Research, Jan 2008, Pages: 130
In the shadow of its big neighbors Germany and Spain, the French photo-voltaic market has evolved from its niche position into a promising growth market. As a result, the interest in the land of the Sun King has become bigger than ever before.
Promotion Finally Effects Strong Market Growth
While the future of the two biggest European markets, Germany and Spain, is still up to the political decision makers as the promotion systems are currently re-viewed, the French solar promotion has paved the way for a steady growth by doubling the feed-in tariffs in 2006. In fact, the French photovoltaic market is growing more quickly than the world market with a rate of about 60 percent until 2010. This is shown by the latest study “The French Photovoltaic Market 2007/08 – Another Path for Photovoltaics” of the market research institute EuPD Research. According to Sarah Endres, project manager of the study, the total market will increase tenfold in comparison with 2006 to 153 MW of newly installed capacity in 2010.
One the one hand, strong market growth is based on tax incentives. They allow French citizens to deduce half of the equipment costs of a PV plant from their annual income tax – up to a maximum sum of 8,000 Euros. The doubling of the feed-in tariff to 30 Cents/kWh in 2006, which is paid for 20 years, created another stimulus for the market. Building-integrated systems receive an extra, resulting in an even higher total remuneration of 55 Cents/kWh.
Domestic Industry Develops
However, the examination of the market shows that similar growth rates such as in Spain cannot be expected for France. The reason for this is France’s general PV strategy focusing on moderate, but sustainable growth on the basis of building-integrated small-sized systems up to three kWp. Consequently, the state set the development goal for photovoltaics to only 500 MWp by 2015. The strategy be-hind this slow market growth is mainly to give the domestic industry the possibility to develop. Furthermore, a special added value shall be created through the devel-opment of building-integrated applications. As a result, several French companies, such as Clipsol, the solar roof tile producer Imerys Toitures, and the market leader Tenesol in collaboration with Arcelor have already developed building-integrated products, which are eligible for the BIPV extra. Nevertheless, the results of the study show that foreign companies such as Ubbink, Schueco and Conergy still have a leading edge regarding the sale of building-integrated products in France. However, domestic providers such as Tenesol as well as the power giant EDF, which will soon offer its own complete small-sized system, are on their heels.
Upswing of the Large-Scale Segment
Due to the promotion strategy, the predominant part of the companies that are active in the French PV market have almost exclusively installed smallest-sized sys-tems. Only in the overseas departments, which include Réunion, Guadeloupe and Martinique, large-sized plants are of special interest also due to a higher basic tariff of 40 Cents/kWh and very high solar radiation. Consequently, the first megawatt plant was connected to the grid in La Réunion at the end of 2006. However, in the continental market, an increasing number of large-sized plants is currently sched-uled as well. The big French energy providers such as EDF, Gaz de France and the newly founded company poweo play a special role in this regard. Richard Loyen of the solar association ENERPLAN confirms: “At the moment, the big energy compa-nies seemingly attempt to surpass each other with respect to their activities in the field of photovoltaics“. First Solar’s supply contracts for more than 100 MWp in each case with EDF as well as the energy producer Séchilienne-Sidec indicate that more can be expected.
Some Challenges Remain
However, delays in the field of grid connection could create problems in particular for the large-scale segment. According to Fabrice Juquois of ADEME, the duration of the application procedure has already been reduced to four months on average for systems smaller than ten kWp. But in case of the big plants, strong delays still have to be expected. Endres explains that “the problem is that a too small number of employees handles too many applications”. In fact, about 34 MWp of plants in total were waiting for grid connection in the course of the year 2007, according to specifications of the grid operator EDF.
Aside from the delays with the grid connection, further market growth is threat-ened by the enormously high system prices, which are almost 100 percent higher than those in Germany. However, up to now, the high prices have not had that much influence on the market growth, confirms Fabrice Juquois of the energy agency ADEME in France: “I nevertheless expect a growth rate of more than 200 percent for 2007 compared of the preceding year. In the long-term, the prices have to go down in order to make a sustainable market growth possible''.
Also regarding installer qualifications, the market is still facing problems. In order to counteract, the association union Quali’ENR (Association Qualité Energies Re-nouvelables) has started a qualification campaign by founding the label QualiPV in November 2007. The label is meant to constitute a brand standing for the stan-dardized qualification of PV installers. Its initiator Richard Loyen expects that 2,000 to 3,000 installers will be qualified by QualiPV by the end of 2008. The installers are able to obtain this qualification by participating in a training course or by prov-ing the installation of five photovoltaic systems within the past three years.
Compared to the partly chaotic situation in the other promising European market Italy, the problems of the French market are rather harmless. Regarding the pro-motion scheme, no structural changes can be expected in the near future. Only a limited increase of the basic tariff might take place. Thus, little is in the way of photovoltaics in France.
For its current study, EuPD Research surveyed one third of all French companies coming from the industry, wholesale, and installation segment that are active in the field of photovoltaics. The complete study is available now.
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