Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Solar Projects in France - A New Auto Consumption Era

Production costs of photovoltaic electricity getting closer to those of conventional electricity, auto consumption projects, independent of any feed-in tariff, develop. André Joffre, President of the DERBI competitiveness pole, explains the emergence of this new model.


Disappointed by the roadmap published this weekend in the wake of the Environmental Conference, the industry professionals have reported a statement by their union, the SER SOLER.

Apart from launching a tender reserved for large roofs, President François Hollande announced himself the "emergency measures" promised a few weeks ago by Delphine Batho (Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy) confined mainly to the 20% cap the annual decline in tariffs (professionals requested 10% and a revaluation of the feed-in tariff for installations of less than 100 kW) and a maximum bonus of 10% of the tariff for BIPV, depending on the origin of the components used in solar panels.


Competitiveness promotes auto consumption

André Joffre, who chairs the cluster of Languedoc Roussillon specializes in renewable energy DERBI, holds a more measured speech. "The roadmap is in line with what was expected. The announcements were less positive than expected, and the measures will not bear fruit until mid-2013, which is late for a fragile industry, "he says. "But if we take a step back, there is an evolution of the market towards more independent projects in tariffs," says he. "We are entering an area of ​​competitiveness that fosters the development of projects of auto consumption. '

Installers establish more and more quotes for individuals and small firms for projects sized according to their energy needs. Therefore no surplus production to sell to EDF (Electricite de France) and no more need for boosted feed-in tariff requested by professionals for years.

Another advantage of this new "German thinking": Reducing tensions that cause massive and intermittent renewable electricity, the work to strengthen the network and the corresponding investments become less necessary



The profession must change model

"The whole profession was organized to create many energy producers, but now, the profitability of these projects does not exceed 5%," says André Joffre. Hence the need to "change software".

The development of this new model based on auto consumption, which can become a growth owes much to "Chinese dumping has earned us 10 years," since the collapse of the price of the panels has allowed the production cost to get closer to the price at which EDF sells its electricity. "Do not forget that the Chinese panels are manufactured on machine tools, coming from Europe," he adds.

On feed-in tariffs in effect, "They should not be suppressed recognizes André Joffre, but there is a real problem because of the weight it puts on the CSPE (Contribution to  Electricity Public Service, paid by consumers), at a time when the price of electricity increases. '


Source: La Tribune (French), Tranlated with Google Translate & Myself

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