France ground-mounted solar tender clears 23% lower at 61.33 EUR/MWh

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France's ground-mounted solar tender has cleared at a markedly lower price. The Commission de régulation de l'énergie (CRE) published the result of the 9th period of the PPE2 PV Sol tender on 9 October 2026. The 125 retained projects total 931.4 MWc against a called volume of 925 MWc, at a weighted average of 61.33 EUR/MWh. That is 18.15 EUR/MWh, or 23%, below the 79.48 EUR/MWh cleared in the previous period.

Competition did the work

The drop follows a surge in participation. According to the CRE, 731 bids totalling 5,358.7 MWc were submitted, 5.8 times the volume on offer and 2.8 times the volume submitted in the 8th period. Thirty bids were eliminated for exceeding the confidential price ceiling, which still left 701 bids for 5,091.93 MWc competing below it.

The CRE notes that this level of competition allowed it to retain projects that are cheaper for the State budget. It also recommends giving the sector as much visibility as possible on the tender calendar and keeping the number of periods limited, since fewer rounds concentrate competition and lower support costs.

Where the volume landed

Just under half of the retained volume (49.3%) sits in the agricultural-land category, which includes agrivoltaic projects, with 49 projects for 459.52 MWc. Degraded land follows with 54 projects for 331.46 MWc. Natural zones, urban land and mixed or other sites together account for 140.42 MWc. Site category matters for pricing. Bids on degraded land averaged 75.97 EUR/MWh across all offers, well above the weighted average of the retained projects.

Smaller projects were present in force. Projects of 5 MWc or less made up 61% of submitted bids, but 79 of them were retained for 202.98 MWc, so the bulk of the awarded volume went to larger plants. The CRE suggests raising the entry threshold of the large ground-mounted tender to 1 MWc and moving smaller projects into the dedicated small-PV tender.

What it means for PPA and merchant economics

A 61.33 EUR/MWh support level resets the reference point for French solar revenue. Developers weighing a state contract against a corporate PPA now face a lower supported price. The gap between the two routes to market narrows accordingly. For projects that did not win, the result also signals how aggressively competitors are pricing, which is useful context when pricing a solar PPA with negative price risk, curtailment risk and balancing risk allocated between the parties.

The CRE also recommends launching a trial mechanism that favours PV-plus-storage projects, announced early enough for developers to adapt their designs. This remains a recommendation for now. If adopted, it would give hybrid configurations a dedicated route in French tenders and strengthen the revenue stacking case for co-located BESS.

How Synertics can help

Synertics tracks capture prices, negative price hours and PPA price levels across France and 14 other European markets in SEMT. If you are benchmarking a tender bid against a PPA or merchant route, you can start with SEMT at https://synertics.io/signup/ or reach us at info@synertics.io to discuss your portfolio in more detail.