The cumulated PV power installed in France was 81 MW in 2008 and could reach 775 to 925 MW at the end of 2010. PV applications submitted so far (but not approved yet by ERDF) represent more than 3 GW of equivalent installations.

If all those projects are validated, France may reach its goal of 5400 MW cumulated capacity earlier than the estimated deadline of 2020.

As a result of this 10-fold increase over just a two year period of time, the French government decided to cut the feed-in-tariff paid for PV-power generated electricity by 12% from 0.42 €/KWh to 0.37 €/KWh for standard roof-mounted applications as of September 1st. Only the residential BIPV applications (<3 KW) are not concerned by this FIT reduction.

This Fall, the government may again readjust its incentive program in order to better fit with its current goal of 500 MW of new grid-tied installations per year until 2020.