"During the first six months of the year alone, 1.367 megawatts (MW) additional were connected against 431 MW over the same period of 2020", details the trade union in a press release.
France thus has 12,6 gigawatts (GW) connected at the end of July 2021 for its photovoltaic park.
Production is also up 9% year-on-year in the first half. "Solar represents 3,1% of electricity demand in France, up 3% compared to the previous year," said the SER.
However, French electricity production is still largely dominated by nuclear (67,1% in 2020 according to RTE), followed by hydraulics (13%), which remains the leading renewable energy in the country. But wind power and solar power benefit from greater momentum.
At the European Union level, solar also reached a new level in production during the summer, according to a recent estimate by the Ember think tank.
For the first time, solar panels generated 10% of the electricity of the 27 member countries of the Union during the months of June and July, according to data from Ember.
Solar thus represented a production of 39 terawatt-hour (TWh) over these two sunny months, an increase of 5,1 TWh compared to June-July 2020.
Eight European countries have thus broken new records for the share of solar in their electricity production over this period, including Germany (17% of electricity) and Spain (16%). In comparison with these countries, however, France remains at the back of the pack with around 4%.