The Land Revolution: Diverse Solar Projects Transforming the French Landscape

Synopsis

Forecasts predicting two-thirds of installed solar by 2025 in France will be ground mounted, making ‘eligible land’ for solar projects is increasingly becoming a hot commodity. This has lead to an increase in solar projects with low-land use and land repurposing at the core of their design.

To facilitate this step change, the French Parliament adopted Law No. 2023-175 which will accelerate renewable energy deployment by:

• Establishing a solar registry which will identify ‘acceleration zones’, listing development potential for rooftop and carparks
• Lifting construction restrictions on repurposable land such as wasteland providing projects meet biodiversity and public safety conditions
• Offering access to state-owned land like unused plots near railway tracks
• Presenting regulatory certainty of agrivoltaism, certifying agrivoltaic projects can receive EU agricultural subsidies and enabling some non-agrivoltaic PV projects to be developed on farmland
• Confirming solar requirement for 1,500 sqm+ carparks will come into force from July 2023
• Setting ‘priority solarisation’ target for new non-residential buildings from July 2025

This panel explores how these developments in the French market is re-shaping the investment and development opportunities French solar has to offer.