The latest government statistics show that France has added approximately 2.76 GW of solar and wind turbine capacity in the first three quarters of 2021, reaching 13.23 GW of solar and 18.54 GW of cumulative wind power installed capacity.

From January to September, the domestic solar photovoltaic (PV) industry put into production 2,034 MW, a year-on-year increase of 167%. During the same period last year, only 761 megawatts of solar power generation capacity was put into production. According to data from the French Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Statistics, the increase in deployment is attributable to the increase in the number of grid connections and energization systems in large factories.

The largest part of the new grid-connected solar farms are registered in the New Aquitaine and Occitanie regions, accounting for 448 MW and 339 MW of total installed capacity, respectively.

Solar power generation in the first nine months of 2021 was 12.5 TWh, which was higher than 11.4 TWh a year ago. During the reporting period, photovoltaics provided 3.7% of the country's electricity demand.

At the same time, from January to September, 70 wind farms with a total of 726 MW began to supply power to the grid, a decrease of 3% from a year ago. About 60% of the capacity put into operation in the first three quarters of this year came from the installed capacity of 8-12 MW. Hauts-de-France and New Aquitaine were the regions with the highest installed capacity during the same period, contributing 213 MW and 129 MW respectively.

French wind farms generated 26.2 TWh of electricity during January-September, accounting for 7.7% of national electricity consumption. Due to unfavorable weather conditions, power output dropped by 6% from a year ago.