On June 10, in Gien, near Orléans, TotalEnergies inaugurated its latest, and largest, ground-mounted solar power plant with great fanfare: La Métairie. More than 75 hectares of photovoltaic panels which radiate under a blazing sun. The equivalent of more than a hundred football pitches. No less than 38 million euros of investment and 15 hectares of deforestation were necessary. This “solar field” makes it possible to cover the electricity consumption of the equivalent of a third of the population of Orléans, thanks to its 55 MW of installed capacity.
Energy transition obliges, photovoltaic installation projects are multiplying in the country. Between 2020 and 2021, France has thus added 34% more solar capacity. The momentum is not expected to dry up any time soon. Europe’s climate objectives and the desire to cut energy ties with Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine, require a low-carbon and rapid energy transition. This is what photovoltaic energy does. And the French market is increasingly buoyant: in his speech in Belfort in February, Emmanuel Macron announced that he wanted to multiply the country’s solar capacity by ten. In May, the European Commission for its part announced the obligation from 2025 to install solar panels on public buildings, but also on commercial surfaces. In 2029, all new residential dwellings will also have to be equipped with them. According to RTE, 4 million French households could ultimately be equipped with panels by 2030. An appetizing cake of which French industrialists hope to get a good share.
Still, we should not slip from a dependence on Russian gas to a dependence on Asian panels. In the current top 10 global photovoltaic companies, eight are indeed Chinese or South Korean. None is European, whereas the latter still represented half of production in 2001. Dumping on prices having been right, in particular, French manufacturers who were nevertheless very advanced.
The advantages of made in France
Playing and winning this return match against the Asian rival is the slightly crazy dream of the start-up Carbon. The young shoot is working to integrate into its project the entire value chain of the traditional panel in order to eventually restore it as much as possible in France or in Europe. From the foundry, with the refining of the silicon or its recycling, to the assembly of the panels, also including the production of the cells: everything will be managed by the company. “There is a big market, a big expectation and a big need. We can rely on it because we know that we will have outlets if we meet these expectations”, analyzes Pascal Richard, the founder of Carbon, before d adding that reindustrializing photovoltaics also means “contributing to reindustrializing other sectors to meet our needs. For example, robotics, since we will need machine tools to produce, among other things, silicon ingots” . The objective of the young shoot? Join the top 10 global manufacturers of photovoltaic panels by 2030. Ambitious!
To distinguish themselves from Chinese competitors, other French and European companies rely on their technological added value and their proximity. Solar Watt, a German photovoltaic company which has a subsidiary in France, specializes in ultra-resistant and low-carbon certified modules thanks to a scrupulous choice of raw materials. It focuses above all on equipping markets where customer relations are essential, such as the agricultural sector, for example. “We distinguish ourselves from our Asian competitors by our presence on the ground. We also provide additional services so that our customers can manage their consumption from their mobile or store the energy they produce”, reports Ian Bard, director of the French subsidiary.
Reclaiming the edge with technology
New uses could also transform the photovoltaic planet to the advantage of French groups. The installation of panels on cars or on bus shelters, still not widespread at present, is no longer science fiction. These uses of “niches” offer levers of competition to French players to be able to offer tailor-made products. Several players are also projecting themselves into the next generation of solar panels. “The panels with 25% yields (against 17% on average on previous generations) are already ready, and within three years this technology will have a good market share”, wants to believe Anis Jouini, head of the solar technologies department. at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). He observes that photovoltaic “at the same time combines increased performance and lower manufacturing costs”.
Some go so far as to bet on so-called “breakthrough” technologies, as they differ from conventional panels. This is the case of the one developed by Armor Solar, a Nantes company, which designs and manufactures “organic solar films” unique in the world: flexible and thin films which can be placed on curved or vertical surfaces and which do not only use recyclable polyester film. No silicon or rare metals integrated into the composition… Which drastically reduces its weight and therefore its carbon footprint. Count about 400 grams against ten kilograms for one square meter installed. If the yield (7%) is low for the moment, the technique is promising and the possibilities of installation almost infinite. A major differentiator against Asian competitors.
Benefits and excitement that inevitably do not go unnoticed by investors. Terra Energies, a Bordeaux investment fund specializing in energy transition, says it plans to invest “6 to 8 million euros over the next five years in photovoltaics”. An impulse encouraged by the public authorities. With the France Relance plan, 500 million euros are dedicated to “bringing out a photovoltaic sector based on technological breakthroughs”. An envelope, however, shared with floating wind power.
Silicon, deemed a “critical” material
But these reindustrialization projects, like that of Carbon, quickly come up against the sensitive issue of the supply of raw materials. France or Spain certainly draw silicon from their basement, but not of the quality necessary for the production of solar panels. In Europe, the subject is such that the matter is considered “critical” by the European Commission. The very high level of purity required is ultra-energy-intensive: in total, the energy equivalent of 6 tonnes of fuel is needed to carry out all the steps essential to refining one tonne of solar-grade silicon. A brief look at current electricity prices in France is enough to understand that this refining would be extremely expensive. The initial investments to design such a high-end, scaled steel industry are staggering. They therefore constitute another obstacle to the relocation of the most upstream stages.
Another thorny point: the lack of will of the major project leaders, including TotalEnergies, Engie or EDF, to obtain panels made in France to carry out their major projects. “By continuing to import Chinese panels, energy companies are freeing up more margin. They are waiting for us to succeed to take an interest in what we are doing, but success can only be collective in order to play on the economy of ‘scale’, analyzes Hubert de Boisredon, boss of Armor group. Since prices depend on volumes, French producers are in great need of substantial orders that only a few large groups can order.
The sad record of the longest delays
Manufacturers also point to administrative delays and a regulatory framework “unsuited”, according to them, to the current context. The Union of Renewable Energies (SER) pleads for simplification measures: “we would like a stable legal framework, which is not in perpetual evolution”, underlines the federation. Another union in the sector, Enerplan, regrets that France holds “the sad record of the country where the time to develop a solar power plant project on the ground is the longest”. The organization also hopes for a massification of calls for tenders and the creation of free zones for advantageous taxation dedicated to these projects.
Finally, the social acceptability of certain projects moderates the enthusiasm of professionals. Recently, the “Horizeo” solar power plant project carried out in New Aquitaine by the consortium formed by Engie and Neoen has been talked about. For good reason: this “low-carbon energy platform”, which notably provides for the deforestation of 1,000 hectares of forest to install a complex with photovoltaic panels, an associated storage system and a data center, has united against it several hundred of detractors. “The risks of flooding, fire or the creation of a heat dome are too high”, worries Marie Rabary, representative of Horizon Forest. Only self-consumption, easily accessible to most individual homes, seems to benefit from a general consensus. A market that is too narrow, however, to set up a robust tricolor sector.