France had a good year in 2021 with regards to its renewable energy sector for which capacity additions grew by nearly 4 GW (3,951 MW to be specific). Solar PV contributed the main share with 68% of this additions. Solar installed 2.687 GW alone while 1.202 GW came from wind energy, according to provisional data shared by French renewable energy association SER.
For solar energy, this means a strong growth from 877 MW the country reported for the year 2020. In Q4/2021, it recorded an all-time quarterly high of 761 MW commissioned. The country's cumulative installed solar power capacity as of December 31, 2021 was 13.067 GW, according to SER.
However, the official statistics from SDES previously claimed total installed PV capacity of France as over 13.2 GW till September 2021 with the addition of 2.034 GW in 9M/2021 (see France Added Over 2 GW Solar In 9M/2021).
Overall, SER believes renewable energy accounted for 25% of the national electricity consumption in Mainland France during 2021 with the cumulative capacity having reached 59.78 GW till the end of last year. Solar energy accounted for 3% of the total electricity consumption having gone up from 2.8% in 2020.
Under the current policies, by the end of 2023 France aims to grow its solar power capacity to 20.1 GW which would mean for the next 2 years it would need to install 3.5 GW annually.
Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron said his country would be aiming for 100 GW solar capacity target by 2050, which is much less than what its neighbor Germany is aiming for—over 200 GW by 2030 (see France Announces 100 GW Solar Target).