Between August 19 and 30, the ground-mounted PV tenders will accept up to 925 MW of projects, in parallel with the building-mounted PV tenders, between August 26 and September 6, which aims for a total capacity of 300 MW. The latter marks the end of carbon footprint requirements based on life cycle assessment (LCA) in favor of a ‘country mix’ approach.
Awaiting the new one from France multi-year energy plan (PPE) and the new composition of government, the Directorate General for Energy and Climate (DGEC) and the Directorate General for Enterprises (DGE) have announced two new tenders for photovoltaic installations by the end of summer 2024. A total of 1,225 GW of solar energy will be offered in two auctions.
In detail, the tender periods for solar energy are planned: between August 19 and 30 for ground-mounted PV, for a total capacity of 925 MW; and between August 26 and September 6 for building-mounted PV, for a total capacity of 300 MW
Solar energy installations on sheep and livestock farms can register for the land-based tender. Depending on their height, other agrivoltaic projects will be able to tender for land or buildings.
“Candidates must undertake to ensure the maintenance of significant agricultural activities under the panels, in accordance with the objectives of the law for the acceleration of renewable energy production,” the DGE said.
Change of the carbon criterion
To promote European-made panels, the tender for buildings will include new criteria regarding the carbon footprint of solar panels. The well-known ‘French peculiarity’ on this point is changing as the life cycle assessment (LCA) method is abandoned in favor of a ‘mix-country’ approach. Specifically, each country will be assigned a carbon score that will be applied to every module, cell or wafer imported from that country. “This change, if successful, could be generalized to all photovoltaic mounting systems,” the DGE specified in a press release.
According to the agency, this new methodology aims to limit the opportunities for fraud and circumvention of carbon footprint requirements. For market observers, it is also a way to directly promote future French and European solar panel production projects with favorable ratings, despite an environmental footprint that is sometimes little better or equal to that of current Chinese producers.
The LCA method enabled Chinese manufacturers to make efforts in their production lines and support a more environmentally friendly solar value chain on a global scale, observers said. This methodology made it possible to assess production units based on their actual environmental footprint, thus increasing the value of manufacturer initiatives, such as switching suppliers or developing their own PV systems for self-consumption, to reduce the burden of Avoid China’s carbon-intensive energy mix. among other things.
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