Yahoo Finance TOTAL (TOT) & Units to Aid France in Achieving Solar Goal
TOTAL S.A. TOT along with its subsidiaries, SunPower Corporation SPWR and Total Solar, is actively participating for the realization of France’s solar target of producing 10.2 gigawatt (GW) of solar power by 2018 and 20.2 GW by 2023.
To achieve the solar target, the French government has planned to call tenders for its 1.45 GW rooftop solar projects at regular intervals. To that end, France recently concluded the second solar round and has selected 310 projects to produce nearly 150 megawatt (MW) of electricity from solar power.
Out of the aforesaid projects, TOTAL along with its partners were able to win 70 projects, totaling a capacity of more than 32 MW or nearly 22% of the allocated capacity in the second round.
SunPower’s E-Series and X-Series solar panels will be utilized to build the solar projects in building and in small carports.
France Going the Solar Way
Per a release by PV Magazine, in the first six months of 2017, France already installed 233 MW of new solar capacity in the system, taking its total installed solar electricity generation capacity to 7.4 GW.
In the first round, 361 solar tender projects with total capacity of 150 MW were awarded to different companies. Thanks to the ongoing improvement in the solar panels and solar technology, the overall prices of producing solar power in the second round will be 10% cheaper than the first round.
We expect the cost to produce power will drop further when the remaining seven solar rounds opens for biddings. No doubts with its high-quality offering, TOTAL will be part of the following tenders from the French government.
Global Picture
In its recent release, U.S. Energy Information Administration (“EIA”) projects that Renewable including hydropower will be the fastest growing sources of generation of electricity. EIA expects renewable sources to increase at a clip of 2.8% per year from 2015-2040 period.
We expect usage of renewable will rise constantly, eating into coal’s share in electricity generation. In the global scale, the goal set by India and China to produce electricity from renewable sources are going to help in lowering emission.
The rising demand for solar generation will boost the prospects of companies like First Solar, Inc.FLSR and ReneSola Ltd. SOL among others.
Zacks Rank
TOTAL S.A. currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Price Movement
TOTAL’s shares have rallied 11.8% in the last 12 months, outperforming the industry’s gain of 6.6%.
The company’s strong production portfolio, initiatives to lower operating costs and new projects will further boost its performance.
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