The French Ministry of Ecological Transition has published the results of the fourth round of the Programmation Pluriannuelle de l'Energie PPE2 ground-mounted PV tender series. A total capacity of 1,519 MW, the largest volume awarded since the French energy regulator Commission de régulation de l'énergie (CRE) began holding the tenders, was awarded to 129 projects.

The tender was open to PV projects ranging in size from 500 kW to 5 MW. The minimum carbon footprint was set at 200 kg CO2 eq/kW and the maximum at 550 kg CO2 eq/kW. The commissioning time was increased from 24—30 months.

The procurement exercise concluded with an average price of €0.0824 ($0.0868) per kWh. According to consulting firm Finergreen, 39 developers were identified among the winners and 22 secured less than 20 MW.

CRE will hold the next tender on Nov. 20, 2023, with a volume of 925 MW.

Last April, the French government announced the launch of a tender for 1.5 GW of ground-mounted PV and another tender for 800 MW of rooftop capacity, in order to compensate for the high failure rate of the third round of tenders for large-scale PV plants.

The mentioned C&I rooftop PV tender was concluded with average price of €0.10195 (US$ 0.1074)/kWh.