EDF: France: The government launches the revision of large solar contracts

REUTERS |

PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) - The government confirmed on Wednesday its intention to reduce public support given to large solar power producers between 2006 and 2010 through feed-in tariffs which the executive said led to excessive and unjustified remuneration.

The texts specifying the terms of this revision of the contracts have been put out for consultation with the players in the sector for a period of fifteen days and the application of the new tariffs is scheduled for October 1 for the ten years or so of contracts remaining to be covered. , specified the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Bercy.

Presented and voted on by Parliament at the end of 2020 as part of the finance law for 2021, the measure concerns more than 700 solar installations of more than 250 kWp and provides for a reduction in the purchase price of the electricity produced by these parks. about 50% on average.

In 2006, in order to promote the development of the photovoltaic sector in France, the very attractive tariff was set at 300 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) for installations not integrated into buildings and at 550 euros/MWh in the event of integration into buildings, compared to 138 euros/MWh previously.

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But the observed cost reductions were then not passed on quickly enough in the tariffs and certain large producers thus benefited from excessive remuneration to the detriment of the taxpayer, explained the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Bercy.

The project should allow the State to save at least 400 million euros per year from 2022. It provides for a "safeguard clause" for producers whose existence would be threatened by the new tariffs.

"If it were applied as it stands, [this project] would endanger the producers concerned and would have major impacts on the solidity of many SMEs, employment and the achievement of the country's climate objectives", estimated in a press release the Syndicat des Energies Renouvelables (SER), Enerplan and Solidarité Renouvelables.

The representatives of the sector, who speak of an "approach disconnected from reality on the part of the public authorities", call on the government to "take appropriate tariff measures because they are based on objective and verified data and not on fragile and questionable". (Benjamin Mallet, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)