France’s installed solar capacity reached 33 GW as of March 31, 2026, including 32.1 GW in mainland France, according to the Statistical Data and Studies Department (SDES).

During the first quarter (Q1) of 2026, 1.5 GW of new solar capacity was connected to the grid, comparable to the 1.57 GW added during the same period in 2025.

The total connected solar fleet showed flat growth, with 1,379,173 installations totaling 32,996 MW, compared with 1,367,569 installations and 32,318 MW at the end of December 2025. SDES data showed that 30,082 new solar installations were connected in Q1, down from 59,357 in Q1 2025.

Larger systems continued to account for a substantial share of capacity additions. Installations above 500 kW accounted for 30% of newly connected capacity but only 0.3% of new connections.

Smaller systems below 9 kW accounted for 74% of all new installations but contributed 7% of newly added capacity.

Gross solar electricity generation in metropolitan France reached 6.6 TWh in Q1, up 13% from 5.9 TWh in the same period in 2025.

Excluding self-consumption, solar generation totaled 6.2 TWh and accounted for 4.6% of electricity consumption in metropolitan France during the quarter, up 0.7%in Q1 2025.

By the end of Q1, 62% of solar installations generated electricity that was fully or partially self-consumed, increasing 1.5% from Q4 2025.

These installations represented 19% of installed solar capacity, up 0.5% from the previous quarter. Producers self-consumed 481 GWh of solar electricity, equivalent to 7% of gross solar generation.

Installations operating under full self-consumption generated 247 GWh, accounting for 51% of all self-consumed solar electricity. Fully self-consuming systems represented 14% of installations that self-consumed some or all of their output and 9% of the total metropolitan solar fleet.

The capacity of projects awaiting grid connection declined 2% from the end of 2025 to 36.1 GW. Of this total, 8.4 GW had secured signed grid connection agreements.

In December last year, France had installed 29.7 GW of solar capacity, with over 1.3 million installations as of September 30, 2025.

In the same month, France’s Ministry of Energy Transition awarded a combined capacity of 507.7 MW across 36 solar projects under the fourth round of its technology-neutral renewables tender.