French Power Purchase Agreements

Description

OVERVIEW

This is a working document, not a market report. It assumes you are about to sign something in France, or about to ask someone else to.

France has cheaper clean power than any large European market this guide compares it against, and one of Europe's thinnest corporate PPA markets. The guide explains why - ARENH and what replaced it, the State's tenders as the competing offer, price formation and the capture collapse - and then works through what to negotiate, in what order, what each concession costs in euro, and which French instrument decides the answer.

Written for buyers and sellers alike. French statutory provisions are quoted in French with their in-force dates, every figure carries a date and a source, and the directory of French PPA offtakers records each agreement as announced and no further.

WHAT THIS EDITION COVERS

Eighteen parts: the French map; the paradox of cheap clean power and a thin PPA market; life after ARENH; the State as the competing offer; choosing a structure in France; what you are really buying; price formation and the capture collapse; finding and testing the counterparty; the term sheet; the risk register in French conditions; bankability; French law and the contract, with fourteen provisions quoted in French and dated; negotiation; execution, grid and settlement; tax, accounting and attributes; France-specific pitfalls; a worked example across three routes; and endgame. Closes with a five-page tear-out field checklist, a directory of French PPA offtakers from January 2024 to September 2026, and reference appendices including a French–English glossary, a citation register and a clause concordance.

WHO THIS IS FOR

Buyers, sellers, developers, lenders and advisers negotiating or financing a power purchase agreement for a French asset or a French buyer.

WHAT YOU GET

Written for both sides of the table, not just the buyer
Fourteen provisions of French law, quoted in French with their in-force dates
Deal evidence from French transactions
What This Costs You - the price of conceding each point
Ask Before You Sign - questions to put to the counterparty
A worked example: one French asset, three routes to market
A five-page tear-out French field checklist
Directory of French PPA offtakers, 2024–2026, recorded as announced
French–English glossary, citation register and clause concordance

RESEARCH AND SOURCES

Every figure carries a date and a source; statutory provisions read from Legifrance in October 2026. Includes a numbered sources and references section, a citation register, a clause concordance and an index.

How to use this guide

Part 0 The French Map

Who sits where in a French power purchase agreement, and where the margin is actually made

Part 1 The Paradox

Cheaper clean power than Germany or Italy on RTE's own 2027 comparison, and one of Europe's thinnest corporate PPA markets

Part 2 After ARENH

The nuclear regime that shaped twenty years of French contracting, the rebate that replaced it, and the volume neither of them gives you

Part 3 The Competing Offer

What the State pays, what it procures, and why the tender - not the market - sets the price your counterparty will accept

Part 4 Choosing Your Structure in France

Six routes to the same megawatt-hour, one licensing provision that decides which of them you can sign, and a twenty-year ceiling nobody imports

Part 5 What You Are Really Buying

Energy, shape, firmness, attributes and capacity - five products priced separately, even when the term sheet quotes one number

Part 6 Price Formation and the Capture Collapse

One zone, three negative-hour counts, and a reference price that leaves the worst hours out of its own average

Part 7 Finding and Testing the Counterparty

Who the French sellers are, whose balance sheet stands behind them, and the difference between a queue position and a project

Part 8 The Term Sheet

Twelve decisions that fix most of the value before a lawyer has drafted a word - and the one the French market answers differently at home than abroad

Part 9 The Risk Register

R1 to R8 in French conditions - who is better placed to carry each, the French reason why, and the clause that moves it

Part 10 Bankability

What a French lender can actually fund against - the capture floor, the merchant tail, and the hedge nobody can show you

Part 11 French Law and the Contract

Fourteen provisions, quoted in French and dated - including the two that decide whether a judge can rewrite your price

Part 12 Negotiation

Sequence, leverage and the order in which to give things away - in a market where neither side can see the other's alternative

Part 13 Execution, Grid and Settlement

Raccordement, the quote-part, balance responsibility and TURPE 7 - the four regimes that turn a strike price into a delivered cost

Part 14 Tax, Accounting and Attributes

The accise, the CTA, IFER and IFRS 9 - four regimes sitting between the price the two sides agree and the number each of them books

Part 15 Pitfalls

Fifteen France-specific ways this goes wrong - seven from the buyer's chair, eight from the seller's

Part 16 The Worked Example

Garonne Solaire and Atelier Nord - one asset, three routes, and what a tender tariff actually pays once it is modelled as the top-up it is

Part 17 Endgame

Default, termination, assignment, repowering and expiry

Tear-out The French Field Checklist

Five pages. Everything in a French PPA that changes an outcome, and nothing that does not.

Directory French PPA Offtakers, 2024–2026

Agreements first announced between 1 January 2024 and 25 September 2026 - recorded as announced, and no further

Appendices Reference

French–English glossary · The citation register · On sources · Clause concordance · Index · Sources and references