L R AS Published on Sunday 28 March 2021 - n° 356 - Categories:Enerplan/SER
Interview with Xavier Daval, president of the SER solar commission
Interview with Xavier Daval, president of the SER solar commission, by Plein Soleil
In 2020, the symbolic mark of 10 GW of photovoltaic installations was passed in metropolitan France. The national objectives
set by the first Multiannual Energy Plan (PPE1) for 2023 have now been reached at 50%. However, in order to reach 35 to 44 GW to be installed by 2028, France will have to connect about 3 to 4 GW per year, which implies tripling or quadrupling the current rate.
If the distribution of PV installations remains the same as at present, 17 GW to 22 GW will have to be built on the ground, i.e. occupying 17,000 to 27,000 hectares or 0.03 to 0.05% of the national territory. The EPP foresees that ground-mounted solar power plants will occupy between 33,000 and 40,000 hectares, and 15,000 to 22,000 hectares of panels will be installed on buildings. This compares to 55 million hectares in France.
Ground-mounted plants are the most profitable. They can be installed on degraded or artificial soil. 9% of the French territory corresponds to this definition and can therefore accept power plants. Therefore, priority is given to projects located on so-called degraded sites. During the 6th call for tenders, 71% of the applicants used such sites. However, there are not enough of these sites to meet the demand. Moreover, their rehabilitation or deconstruction, their decontamination and their earthworks can lead to additional costs that limit or prevent photovoltaic projects. Moreover, the volume of degraded sites is limited and poorly distributed over the territory. Finally, access to the grid may be very remote
The coordination between photovoltaics and agriculture opens up certain horizons. The installation of panels can be at low or high heights depending on whether agricultural machinery has to pass underneath. France is well placed as the leading agricultural country in Europe in economic terms.
Many synergies are possible between agriculture and photovoltaics, both in France and overseas. There are already a number of concrete achievements. To give just one example, agricultural louvers are an agrivoltaic system consisting of a structure that is raised according to the type of crop and its operating conditions, such as the passage of agricultural machinery. Depending on the weather conditions, the movement of the panels adapts in real time the light reaching the crops, thus optimising the agricultural yield.
Floating solar is another area of development and helps to alleviate the lack of land for power plants. Bodies of water are mostly unoccupied and our country has a significant amount of sites suitable for the development of floating photovoltaic projects, estimated at 10 GW
The land problem is the same or even greater in the non-interconnected zones (ZNI) because these territories have a particular topography. The Littoral law prohibits the construction of PV plants on the coast. Derogations are possible in Guyana.
Plein Soleil of 22 March 2021
Editor's note We had to report this interview with a prominent member of the SER. However, the information seems to be already known
