Newly installed PV capacity in France came down 37% in 2016 to 559 MW. In 2015, the country had installed 894 MW. Total installations were 15,970 in 2016 as compared to 17,822 installed in 2015.
This is one of the lowest solar market growth years the country has had since 2009, as per figures shared by the French Ministry of Environment, Energy and the Sea.
The cumulative capacity of France has now reached 7,134 MW at the end of December 2016. Maximum capacity is now installed in Nouvelle Aquitanie with 1,732 MW, followed by Occitanie at 1,472 MW. Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur has 945 MW installed, while Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes has a capacity of 705 MW.
In April last year, France increased its solar power capacity installation target from 10,200 MW by the end of 2018 to 20,200 MW by the end of 2023 (see France Increases Solar target). Many experts had hoped the market would in consequence increase to about 1 GW per year.
In 2015, solar power generation covered 1.4% of the total energy supply. A year later, this increase 14% to 7.7 TWh. On the whole, solar power made up only 1.6% of the total energy demand of the country.