France has long relied on heavy doses of nuclear power to keep the air clean and the lights on. Now though, with increased scrutiny over nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster and an interest in reducing even its small proportion of fossil fueled power generation, France is adding more solar power to its mix of energy resources. Renewables Now reports that France is filling the first-third of a 500MW solar power tender with 130MWs of solar panels purchased from SunPower Corp. Ivan Shumkov writes:
The US company will deliver panels of the E-Series for installation at 25 ground-mount and carport solar projects. This represents 31% of the solar panels required for the awarded solar projects, it said in a statement.
SunPower will manufacture a significant portion of the modules at its facilities in Toulouse, France.
Segolene Royal, France’s energy and ecology minister, announced earlier in March 79 winners in the first 500-MW call for ground-mounted solar systems. It is part of a 3-GW solar tender with six 500-MW calls, to be held between 2017 and 2020. The next call will be in May 2017.
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