An absolute record. Nearly 87,000 French people have made the switch to photovoltaic installations since the start of 2023. The number of individual self-consumers, combining households and businesses, has doubled in the space of just two years to reach 325,939 connections , according to the Solar Energy Observatory report published this Monday, September 4. There were only 3,000 in 2015. “The installers on deck are overwhelmed!”, notes Richard Loyen, general delegate of Enerplan, the union of solar energy professionals.
A cure for rising energy prices
In 90% of cases, according to Observ’ER (the Renewable Energy Observatory), small installations below 9kW are made by individuals rather than by companies. The soaring cost of energy has given some households ideas: the wholesale price of electricity has risen from 50 to 222 euros/MWh during the year 2021, before rising to 700 euros in summer 2022. If this price increase is the main motivation for consumers to take the plunge, there is also “the fact of wanting to adapt to the transition and the electricity needs which are increasingly important, with for example the use of the heat pump, analyzes Richard Loyen. There is also a contagion effect and marketing that is improving.”
If switching to photovoltaics does not make you independent – you have to compensate for the intermittence of this type of energy –, supplementing your electricity supply in this way can nevertheless greatly contribute to reducing the bill. The savings made depend on the type of installation, the consumption, the geographical location of the dwelling and the quality of the maintenance. Engie estimates that, on average, installing these panels would save between 200 and 600 euros per year on its bill. A gain that is not negligible as the regulated electricity tariff again increased by 10% on August 1st.
Households have also been able to benefit from a boost from the State, which offers self-consumption bonuses to convince owners. Premiums that Enerplan considers “sufficient for the middle class”. In the 1ᵉʳ quarter of 2023, they amounted to €500/kWp for power less than or equal to 3 kWp and €370/kWp for power between 3 and 9 kWp. To speed up the installation of solar panels, some argue for a reduced rate of VAT. “The European Union allows precisely to have this kind of VAT for transition technologies and it is not applied to photovoltaics, regrets Richard Loyen. Beyond 3 kW of installed power, VAT represents 20%.
China, big winner of this trend
Between self-consumption, the installation of panels on the ground and that on large roof surfaces, solar energy finally provided 11.2 TWh of electricity in the first half of 2023, the equivalent of almost four reactors. 900 MW nuclear. In total, the photovoltaic represents 4.7% of French electricity consumptionaccording to 2022 data from the Ministry of Energy Transition.
The dynamism of the market is encouraging but the road remains long. For now, France has 18 gigawatts installed in photovoltaic energy, compared to 61.4 GW for the French nuclear fleet. A capacity five times lower than Germany, which is less sunny. “In the Netherlands, there are 25% of individual houses equipped for self-consumption and we remain well below. We are only catching up”, observes the general delegate of Enerplan.
If France tries to return to the battle of the production of photovoltaic panels, it is clear that the time is still for Asian hegemony. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), China currently controls the vast majority of the global solar panel supply chain. From the production of polysilicon, the main raw material used to design them, to the manufacture of photovoltaic cells and the assembly of panels, China controls 75% to 97% of each key stage in this industry.
However, investment in photovoltaic panels remains significant. Count around 10,000 euros. We must therefore be careful: do not buy in the salon, because the refraction time is different, nor give in to insistent canvassing. It is also safer to call on an RGE installer and do not hesitate to compare quotes.