France's installed renewable energy capacity is close to 54.7GW

     New data from the French grid operator RTE shows that as of the end of June 2020, France's total solar setup renewable energy generation capacity reached 54,690 MW, an increase of 2,431 MW over the previous year.

    In the second quarter alone, 333 megawatts of renewable energy were connected to the city grid, including 159 megawatts of wind power and 172 megawatts of solar power.

    From April to June this year, renewable energy power generation including hydropower was 30.4 TWh, accounting for 33.2% of the total electricity consumption in France, breaking the historical record of 30.7% set in the second quarter of 2018. The achievement of this new milestone stems from the decline in electricity consumption in metropolitan areas caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

    During these three months, the solar photovoltaic power plant generated 4.5 TWh, while the wind power plant generated 6.9 kWh.

    In the past 12 months, the installed capacity of wind farms in France was 1,236 MW. By the end of June this year, the installed capacity of wind farms in France was 16,930 MW. As a result, it has achieved 70% of its goal of having 24,100 MW of onshore wind energy assets by 2023.

    At the same time, the country’s solar generators consist of 9912 megawatts of power plants, equivalent to 49% of the 2023 solar installed capacity target.

    As of the end of June, the total amount of hydroelectric power generation was 25,705 MW, an annual increase of 160 MW, while the total capacity of the country’s bio-energy facilities was 2,143 MW.