France 300 MW Solar Tender

• France has announced a tender for 300 MW PV capacity to be developed at Fessenheim location in Haut-Rhin department
• PV has been selected as the technology to replace the ageing and soon to be shut 1.6 GW Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant
• The 300 MW capacity will be divided into a 200 MW ground-based plant, 75 MW of large rooftop and 25 MW of small rooftop plants
• First call for bids is expected within 6 months, and the entire exercise will involve 3 phases

French Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition has issued a PV tender for 300 MW to be developed in the Fessenheim region where the country's oldest nuclear power plant with 1.6 GW capacity operated by EDF is about to be discontinued. The tender was launched after securing permission from the European Commission to use the site location for solar power development.

The project to be located in the department of Haut-Rhin in Grand Est region, will be divided into 200 MW of ground-based power plants, 75 MW of large-scale rooftop installations and 25 MW of small rooftop systems. The call for tenders will be launched in 3 phases – and the first bids are expected in 6-month time.

"The call for tenders represents a commitment by the State of € 250 million for the benefit of the territory over a period of 20 years," said the ministry.

In mid-2018, French Directorate-General for Energy and Climate (DGEC) had expected the first phase of auction to be implemented in 2018 and shares feed-in-tariff (FIT) rates to be paid for the projects (see Details For 300 MW Fessenheim PV Project).

In November 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out a nuclear phase out for his country, but announced a target for a 40% share of renewables in the country's total energy mix by 2030. Solar has been assigned to add between 36.5 GW to 44.5 GW by 2028. At the end of Q3/2018, France had cumulative PV capacity of 8.73 GW (see France Adds Only 213 MW PV In Q3/2018).