France's PV sector demonstrates regained confidence in the future of solar PV in both domestic and foreign markets. This was the key takeaway from renewable energy event, EnerGaïa, which took place this week in Montpellier. Expectations are that the event is fast becoming France's energy transition fair. pv magazine presents the four themes dominating 2017's event.A mixture of optimism and realism marked the event, which was held between December 13 and 14 in Montpellier in France's southern region of Occitanie.
While the French government and energy giant, EDF have announced ramped up plans for solar in the years and decades to come, the country's PV sector has shown regained confidence in the future of the technology, at home and abroad.
Although EnerGaïa is typically considered a regional renewable energy event, since it both receives the support of Occitanie, and a significant number of its exhibitors come from this very sunny region, this year an international dimension was very much apparent.
Almost all the key national solar and renewable energy players were there, including the country's three major power utilities, EDF, Engie and Direct Energie, all of which are active in the solar sector.
Below are the four key takeaways from the event:
EDF's 30 GW solar plan - no turning back
The very ambitious, and unexpectedly big solar plans, announced by EDF at the beginning of this week were one of the main talking points at the fair.
The company announced it will deploy 30 GW of PV capacity in the 15-year period between 2020 and 2035, an amount of installed power which will very likely compensate the dismantling of a consistent portion of its huge nuclear power generation capacity.
EDF's move means a real change in the French mentality towards renewables and energy in general, Xavier Daval, VP of French renewable energy association SER and CEO and President of KiloWattsol SAS, told pv magazine at the fair.
"We don't have to use in this case the concept of energy transition, this is a real revolution," Daval commented.
EDF was active in the solar sector in France through its units EDF Energies Renouvelables (large-scale solar) and EDF ENR (distributed generation) in France prior to this announcement, but it had never so overtly stated that PV could gain such importance.
The new plan has given everybody in the French solar sector the impression ...Den vollständigen Artikel lesen ...