French federal government thinks about cutting pre-2011 FITs

• Financial paper Les Echos declares the government is mulling a renegotiation of historical feed-in contracts after the Court of Auditors in 2018 ruled the motivations also charitable.

French financial paper Les Echos today declared the Ministry of Economy and Finance is taking into consideration retroactively renegotiating feed-in tariffs (FITs) awarded by the government to solar power projects before 2011.

Provisions to enact cuts which can conserve around EUR600 million could be consisted of in the budget bill for next year which is expected this month, according to the report.

The French Court of Auditors in 2018 ruled the historic FITs too charitable. "The tariffs approved before 2011 will certainly represent EUR2 billion each year till 2030 (i.e. EUR38.4 billion, cumulatively) for a manufacturing quantity equivalent to 0.7% of the electrical power mix", said a report from the authority at the time. "This stands for a support cost of around EUR480/MWh."

The Les Echos report priced quote ecological legislation expert Arnaud Gossement as claiming: "We are faced with contracts authorized numerous years back. Their wondering about by the public authorities would certainly be unprecedented as well as would run the risk of generating mass conflicts with the state, yet also between solar players who could declare the impossibility of satisfying specific stipulations of their contracts due to the decision of the state."

Aurélie Beauvais, policy director of profession body SolarPower Europe, informed pv magazine: "If the reports of the retroactive evaluation confirm to be proper, this would be a step in the incorrect instructions for reaching the European Green Deal's climate goals. Retroactive adjustments have historically threatened the self-confidence of investors and consumers to invest in solar and are now banned in the EU's Clean Energy Package regulation.

" Any retroactive modifications that can threaten certainty and also stability for our field are counter-productive to [the European] Commission's goal for environment nonpartisanship by 2050. While the details of the proposed retroactive review are yet to be confirmed, it is essential that such a testimonial does not hinder solar projects at a time when the EU needs a much faster price of solar release."

Xavier Daval, CEO of French solar technical advising KilowattSol, informed pv magazine the historic FITs were high because of the unpredictabilities connected with a brand-new modern technology at the time. "Retroactively, these very first tariffs may appear disproportionate today yet at the time, the pioneers of solar took risks that just the possibility of a significant gain can balance the funding strength needed 10 years ago, when the panels set you back more than EUR3 per Watt. When, in 2020 Elon Musk sends out a rocket into room for $2 million while the Apollo 11 objective price $2 billion, should we retroactively think about that the investment of the sixties was a mistake which as a great papa to household, it would have been necessary to await the 21st century to start the occupation of space?"

The French government retroactively reduced offshore wind rewards two years earlier, after a lengthy battle with the incipient industry.