To alleviate the energy crisis, more and more French households are relying on self-consumption of electricity. According to figures released by Enedis, the number of individual self-consumption installations has more than doubled in two years. In total, as of June 30, 2023, the France had 325,939 individual self-consumers of electricity, an increase of 77% compared to mid-2022, and a number of individual installations more than doubled compared to mid-2021.
As far as installed capacity is concerned, the increase is 88% over one year. It increased from 868 MW on June 30, 2022 to 1,629 MW on June 30, 2023, says Enedis.
The quest for carbon neutrality
Four departments in the south of the France stand out, with installed capacities exceeding 50 megawatts. Among them: Haute-Garonne, Hérault, Bouches-du-Rhône and Isère, says the French Observatory of Ecological Transition. But industrial departments such as Nord, Loire-Atlantique and Rhône are also growing strongly with installed capacities of between 36 MW and 47 MW each.
The Observatory notes that collective self-consumption, for the sharing of local electricity between one or more producers at the level of a building, a condominium, a neighborhood or an industrial zone, for example, is also developing. At the end of June, 224 local collective operators were identified in the country, the acceleration of the pace of progress mainly due to local authorities which carry out 60% of the projects, according to the Observatory.
However, these figures are far from catching up with France's photovoltaic gap, particularly with regard to large solar field installations. Photovoltaics should reach between 92 and 144 GW of installed capacity in 2050 for the France to meet its carbon neutrality objectives, recalls Ademe on its website.
However, the power of the French photovoltaic solar park reached only 18 GW at the end of the first half of 2023, according to statistics from the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Photovoltaic solar electricity production, which amounted to 11.2 TWh in the first half of the year, represents 4.7% of French electricity consumption over the half-year.