Renewable energy in France: a growing market
France’s Energy Transition for Green Growth Act law, established in 2015, included increasing the gross final energy consumption from renewable sources to 23 percent by 2020 among France’s energy transition targets. Despite being one of the top five largest producers of renewable energy in Europe in 2021, France was not on track with its energy transition objectives. In fact, the share of renewables in the France's final energy consumption was only 19 percent in 2020.However, thanks to considerable investments in the energy transition sector, the renewable energy capacity grew steadily over the past decade to almost 60 gigawatts in 2021. In 2022, the first offshore wind power plants were opened in France.
Hydro and solar power trends in France
With an electricity capacity of some 26 gigawatts, hydropower accounted for around 20 percent of the primary energy share from renewable sources in France in 2020. The European hydropower market was threatened by a severe drought in summer 2022, causing a fall in France’s hydropower electricity output.Projections showed solar photovoltaic as a candidate to take over hydropower’s position in the next five years. In fact, France planned to reach a solar capacity of 100 gigawatts by 2050. In 2021, the southern French regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alps, Occitania, Provence-Alps-Azure Coast, and New Aquitaine were the national leaders for both hydropower and photovoltaic installed capacity.
