(Montel) French solar output is set to hit 12.3 GW on Sunday – its highest point since the record 13.1 GW seen in June, Clement Bouilloux, French manager at Montel’s EnAppSys, said on Friday.
He expected Monday to also see a solar power spike of 12 GW at peak production hours, adding that this was surprising as the yield of solar panels tended to decrease above 25C, with even lower efficiency above 30C.
Meteo France has forecast highs of around 40C near the Rhone valley in the southeast and Mediterranean coastline from this weekend onwards, and said it expected the looming heatwave to be the hottest of this summer.
Meanwhile, Montel’s Energy Quantified (EQ) predicted solar power output to reach 11.5 GW on Sunday and Monday, and 12.1 GW on Tuesday.
Solar power hit a record 13.1 GW on 24 June, recording peaks above 12 GW on eight days since June, with the second highest output seen at 12.2 GW, data from TSO RTE showed.
France had installed 17.2 GW of solar capacity and 21 GW of onshore wind capacity by the end of March, according to the latest government data.
Low wind output
Meanwhile, EnAppSys expected onshore wind output to dwindle amid low wind speeds.
It forecast the maximum output to range from 1.5-5 GW from today until Monday. However, the first week of September should see a rise to a minimum output of 4 GW, Bouilloux said.
Meteo France forecast low wind speeds over the weekend, while EQ forecast wind output to be around 47% lower than normal levels on average until Tuesday.
