Debate on the PPE: solar is sovereign, abundant, competitive and decarbonized

Enerplan fully supports the Prime Minister's presentation. Let's apply them to solar energy:

• Available and abundant by definition, solar energy provides our country with the means to achieve the ambition stated by the Prime Minister. It is available and abundant throughout the country, and it is easy and quick to install, whether on roofs or on the ground. Rooftop availability is unlimited. As for land, the surface area required to achieve the objectives of the latest PPE project is limited to 0,0036% of the national territory per year, or, in other words, 20 ha/year/department. France is not about to be covered in solar panels! Let's add that half of the areas mobilized for solar energy are on degraded land, often unusable for other purposes.
• Solar energy, by definition, produces sovereign electricity, without any fuel imports, and it is territorial since the locally produced energy is consumed as close as possible to the production sites. Projects to establish gigafactories for the production of solar panels, supported by the government and the sector, will further strengthen its sovereign character. Every 1% of our fossil fuel imports costs us €1,35 billion; the PPE project for solar energy would allow us to save €4 billion per year. Solar energy contributes to the reconquest of energy sovereignty, for electricity and heat production.
• Solar power is produced by completely carbon-free electricity. RTE estimates that each kWh of solar photovoltaic energy saves 480g of CO2. Each kWh of solar thermal energy also replaces fossil fuels for heat production. Industrial relocation will further improve the efficiency of solar power.
• Finally, solar energy has become very competitive, due to a massive drop in the cost of investment excluding connection of a power plant and a permanent and regular growth in its productivity linked to the performance of the panels, which increased by 55% between 2015 and 2025. This trend is set to continue.

This competitiveness is slowed down by the cost of connection, by the level of direct and indirect levies (taxation, value sharing) which are very high as a percentage of turnover and by the long and expensive process of obtaining building permits.

One of the major challenges of solar energy is to support its growth through flexibility and storage. Lower storage costs should enable its rapid deployment, whether in hybrid form at large power plants or on dedicated sites. The need for storage will not jeopardize the competitiveness of solar energy. It's worth noting that self-consumption, which is very dynamic, can also be very competitive for consumers, whether individuals or businesses.

For Daniel Bour, President of Enerplan: "The Prime Minister introduced the parliamentary debates with the need to electrify our energy needs to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, but he also rightly specified the four criteria that electricity sources in the electricity mix must meet: decarbonization, abundance, sovereignty, and competitiveness. I note that solar energy already fully meets these criteria. The deployment of solar power must lead to even greater competitiveness. The challenges now are to implement systems to manage its production, through the deployment of storage and flexibility, and at the same time to develop the French solar industrial sector, with the opening of solar panel gigafactories. The months of delays in adopting the PPE are slowing down these objectives. The industry's stakeholders need visibility to move forward. 4 months of discussion is too much and it's economically expensive! It is urgent that the PPE be published so that stakeholders in all electricity sectors can fully invest."

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.