France updates target, 60GW in 2030!

France has submitted an updated National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), raising its solar photovoltaic installed capacity target to 60GW in 2030.

Compared with the previous NECP submitted in 2019, the new draft adds at least 14GW of installed photovoltaic capacity. By 2035, France aims to increase its cumulative photovoltaic installed capacity to 75-100GW.

Although this increase may not be high compared with neighboring countries such as Spain and Italy. These two countries aim to have PV installed capacity of 76GW and 80GW respectively by 2030, especially Spain, which plans to nearly double its previous solar PV target.

Nuclear power appears to remain an important part of France's electricity decarbonization goals, as the draft NECP shows that the word "nuclear power" is mentioned 104 times and "solar" 19 times, many of which are related to solar heat. Last year, nuclear power accounted for 62.2% of France's electricity generation, wind power accounted for 8.7%, and solar power accounted for only 4.2%.

As of the end of 2022, France's photovoltaic installed capacity was 15.7GW, of which 2.6GW was added last year, accounting for more than half of the total newly installed renewable energy capacity in 2022 (more than 5GW).

Other updated targets include France’s plan to add 5.5-7GW of new photovoltaic capacity per year. Most of the new capacity is expected to come from large-scale ground-mounted PV, accounting for 65%, rooftop commercial and industrial will account for 25%, and the remaining 10% will be household solar.