France confirmed it's pledge to actively encourage the installation of solar systems for both residential and business users by announcing plans that the French Electricity company EDF will build the country's largest solar manufacturing plant which signals France's intentions to become one of the worlds largest solar markets.

The French government department which is responsible for promoting and advising about solar energy is the Agence de l’Environnement et le Maitrise de l’Energie or ADEME.

According to the website, its main mission is to promote France's national policy to greatly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and to tackle the issue of climate change by developing energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

The energy bill that is in place plans to cut down the energy intensity each year by 2% until 2015 and then by 2.5% every year until 2030.

This bill is being heavily promoted by the French Government and to that end various incentives and tax relief programmes are being offered.

The incentives vary slightly from region to region but consumers who are interested in a solar installation are able to apply to the Conseil Regional for a cheque solaire which is a voucher to the value of €400 which can then be used against material and installation costs provided that the company who is contracted to carry out the work belongs to a recognised trade association and there is also the option of of a tax rebate of 50% of the costs of installation and materials.

There is also a scheme available which would allow users to sell back excess electricity to EDF and according to their website they give an example of an installation of solar panels on a property which would create 2940Wc of power.

Assuming that the total cost including installation comes to €20,750 (without the tax credit) the system will pay for itself in 8.9 years and it will make a profit of €25,829 over a period of 20 years which works out to a return on investment of 9.34%.

If the 50% tax credit is claimed, these figures change to a break even point of 5.5 years and a profit over 20 years of €33,829 which is a return on investment of 17.55%.

These type of returns along with the increasing awareness of the carbon foot print issue is resulting in an increasing number of French consumers opting to take full advantage of solar energy.