{"id":5271,"date":"2020-02-24T12:02:38","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T12:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reuniwatt.com\/en\/?p=5271"},"modified":"2025-08-01T12:32:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T10:32:31","slug":"reunion-island-leading-energy-transition-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reuniwatt.com\/en\/industry-news\/reunion-island-leading-energy-transition-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Renewables in France: Reunion Island is taking a lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 17 August 2015, the french government adopted the energy transition act for green growth. Almost five years later, Reunion Island is taking a lead with respect to their installed solar capacity and the country’s energy transition.<\/p>\n

Stepping up the game<\/h2>\n

When France set up its plan for energy transition, it aimed to cut the consumption of fossil fuels by 30% by 2030 and reduce the share of nuclear energy to 50% of electricity production by 2025, while the share of renewables should finally reach 40% of electricity production.
\nAs a concrete measure, the act introduced purchase obligation tariffs to finance renewable electricity produced by and consumed by individuals and businesses.
\nAt the end of 2015, the installed photovoltaic capacity of France had reached 6.5 GW, including 6.2 GW in mainland France.
\nSince 2015, numerous successful tenders encouraged further PV installations: The Energy ministry launched a series of six tenders of 3GW in total, between 2017 and 2020, which helped increase the PV capacity over the recent years:<\/p>\n

\"Evolution
\nImage 1: Installed solar capacity in France 2006-2019. Image Source: RTE (2019): Annual Report – Installed solar capacity<\/em><\/p>\n

Entering the new decade, the installed capacity has almost doubled since 2015, to 9,435 MWp at the end of 2019, with 93% connected to the grid run by Enedis, ELD and EDF-SEI.
\nThe existing solar park equals roughly 51% of the 18.2 GW installed capcity to be reached by 2023 (or 20.2 GW in a second scenario).
\nIn 2019, the regional solar coverage rate exceeded 5% in just two regions in mainland France – Nouvelle-Aquitaine 7.4% (2,455 MW) and Occitanie 6.7% (2,017 MW), followed by Provence-Alpes-C\u00f4te d’Azur with 4.6% (1,334 MW), which also posesses the highest density of installations with over 20 KW\/km\u00b2 each. At the same time, the sunny mediterranean island of Corsica achieves 9,5% of solar coverage with just about 152MW of capacity, and 17.5 KW of installed solar capacity per km\u00b2. In Reunion Island, solar density reaches 75.6kW\/km\u00b2 on the relatively small territory.<\/p>\n

\"Regional
\nImage 2: The installed solar capacity reached >5% of coverage in three regions (dark green) in 2019. Image Source: RTE (2019): Annual Report – Regional differences
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Increasing the renewables share in remote areas<\/h2>\n

To address the needs the french insular areas Corsica, R\u00e9union, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane, Saint-Barth\u00e9lemy, Saint-Martin and Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, the French Energy Regulation Commission (CRE) is awarding contracts for these so-called non-interconnected zones (ZNI) for renewables projects over 100kW through regular competitive public tenders.These insular zones, especially the overseas islands, have experienced a dependency on imported fuels for several decades. Reunion Island is the best example on how to overcome this dependency<\/a>: Since 2002, the local administration is aiming for the autonomy of electricity production with the use of renewable energies (solar, wind, energy from the sea, geothermal energy, hydrogen) and energy management in the long term.<\/p>\n

In 2018, renewable energy covered 36.5% of electricity production on Reunion Island, 4% more than in 2017, showing that the political commitment is translating into action. Around 20% are attributed to hydropower – despite the overall production drop of more than 12% in France in the last year, where hydropower made up for 11.2% of the total production – and 9% to PV, wind and biogas. Therefore, Reunion Island is taking a lead in the energy transition of France. The island partly achieves that through (financially) promoting the use of renewable energies on an individual level – through domestic solar water heaters, for example, – as well as planning for the extension of electric mobility in the near future. In addition, the island is embracing and encouraging the build up of local know-how in the field of renewable energy, such as provided by solar forecasting experts at Reuniwatt: The company was recently selected by the FrenchTech 120 initiative as one of the most innovative young companies in France.<\/p>\n

The local PPE recognises that for the development of renewable energies it is a necessity to support:<\/p>\n