L R AS Published on Monday 26 September 2022 - n° 415 - Categories:self-consumption, Enerplan/SER

Enerplan presents its "giga solar shield

At the5th Photovoltaic Self-Consumption University, Enerplan presented its "giga solar shield". The idea is to limit the inflation of electricity bills by massively and rapidly deploying short solar electricity circuits throughout France.

250 MW of self-consumption PV were installed in France last year, and between 400 MW and 500 MW will be installed this year. According to Enerplan, the pace should be stepped up to add 1 GW of photovoltaic capacity by 2023.

Enerplan has drawn up fifty proposals aimed at removing the regulatory and tax obstacles that are limiting the massive development of PV self-consumption in France. The plan aims to

  • Simplify the procedures for all households
  • Restore competitiveness to businesses, with long-term supply at controlled prices
  • Stabilise the operating budgets of local authorities and facilitate collective self-consumption within regions
  • Solarising social housing and housing for the underprivileged, to give people back the power to live.

Based on these 4 priorities, here are the key measures aimed at households:

  • Launch a major campaign to install solar equipment in low-income households to restore purchasing power: self-consumption is a way of providing a solution in kind to the problem of expensive electricity. To achieve this, we need to
  • Bringing the taxation of collective self-consumption into line with that of individual self-consumption.
  • Allow projects to be financed under the "precariousness CEE" scheme,
  • Apply reduced VAT to small installations of less than 36 kWp (applied by our neighbours under the RePowerEU measures)
  • Simplify self-consumption for households: 'an installation can be done in a day'. It is only delayed for administrative reasons.

It can be accelerated by :

  • Remove the administrative and connection procedures for small projects of less than 36 kWp,
  • Guarantee the right to self-consumption for everyone, by removing the administrative obstacles to household installations.
  • Encourages storage, to maximise household self-consumption,
  • Opens up the possibility, as in Spain, of the electricity supplier purchasing the surplus at the best price.

For businesses and local authorities:

  • By securing consumption at a stable price, self-consumption makes businesses more competitive and avoids power cuts. Solarising roofs or car parks guarantees businesses predictable, low-cost production. To accelerate self-consumption, we need to :
  • Facilitate access to debt and simplify third-party investment solutions,
  • Flat-rate connection costs for installations of less than 250 kW
  • Allow projects of up to 1 MW on the ground or on the roof to access the open window,
  • Allow projects over 100 kW to choose between an installation premium with a low tariff for the surplus, and access to the more attractive tariff without a premium.
  • Allowing reversibility of projects from full sale to self-consumption.

Local authorities are also suffering from expensive electricity. Making self-consumption easier for them means stabilising their operating budgets. Enerplan proposes to :

  • Securing long contracts in the public procurement code, for self-consumption and private contracts
  • Allow local authorities to organise collective self-consumption operations themselves,
  • Extend the power allowed for self-consumption to 10 MW (compared with 3 MW at present).

"At a time when our country is facing a violent energy crisis that is set to last for several years, photovoltaic self-consumption should help to cushion the economic and social blow. France is lagging far behind its neighbours, but the demand from consumers, both private and industrial, is there, and all that's needed is to rapidly turn it into gigawatts. All we need to do is support it, in particular by adapting regulations and taxation. Every year, we need to equip several hundred thousand homes and tens of thousands of businesses and local authorities. That's the ambition of our plan," says Daniel Bour, Chairman of Enerplan.

https://tecsol.blogs.com/mon_weblog/2022/09/plan-dautoconsommation-photovolta%C3%AFque-denerplan-un-giga-bouclier-solaire-.html

Tecsol of 22 September 2022

Editor's note Enerplan is right to recommend self-consumption. It is a simple solution that is accessible to households, businesses and local authorities. However, this proposal only mitigates the additional cost of electricity by between 10% and 40% of the volume produced.

There remains one major obstacle: the lack of knowledge among the people, businesses and local authorities concerned. When a solar power plant is inaugurated on a building, there is still a big demonstration or celebration. This just goes to show how rare they are. Another aspect that shows that self-consumption is and remains marginal is the 400 to 500 MW that will be installed by 2022, compared with the 1 to 2 gigawatts that will come on stream this year in our country, and despite the soaring price of electricity. We're far from a craze.

Subscribe to the newsletter "Le Fil de l'Actu"...

Most read articles in the last 10 days