France is a French speaking country located in Western Europe with an area of about 543,965  km2 and a population of 67.3 million. Paris is the capital and has a population of 2.2 million and is considered the most populous urban area in the European Union. As a developed country, the French economy is diversified and leading industries are tourism, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.

France has a significantly low-carbon electricity mix due to 75 % reliance on nuclear power. Electricity from renewables and fossil fuels comprise smaller shares. According to the Multiannual Energy Programme published by the French government in November 2018, it is looking to diversify the energy mix and is targeting a fivefold increase in solar photovoltaic energy by 2030. The government will also increase its annual expenditure from €5 billion to €8 billion by 2028, amounting to €71 billion in total to support renewable energy over the next 10 years.

According to the government's new energy strategy published for consultation in January 2019 – "the Programmation pluriannuelle de'lenergie", the envisaged six-year solar tender program will allocate 2.7 GW this year, and 2.9 GW per year for the next five years. This year, two tenders for ground mounted solar will be held in the second and fourth quarters, with an expected assigned capacity of 800 MW and 1 GW, respectively. Rooftop solar will have three tenders in the first three quarters, with an assigned capacity of 300 MW each. The strategy envisages solar reaching an installed capacity of 20 GW by 2024 – 11.6 GW ground-mounted and 9 GW rooftop – and between 35.6 GW, in the worst-case scenario, and 44.5 GW by the end of 2029.

Insolation levels in France range from 3 sun hours/day in the north to 5 sun hours/day in the south. Three regions in France have a solar generating capacity of over 1.2 GW: New Aquitaine, Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.These regions represent more than 62 % of the French installed base, which can be explained by their geographic location in the southernmost part of France and have good solar coverage. The Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region is experiencing the strongest annual change, with an increase of over 19 % in installed capacity. As of December 2018, the total installed capacity of solar parks was 8,527 MW and produced 10.2 TWh of solar energy. This capacity achieved the 2018 EPP target of 10,200 MW by 84 %.

The government provides fiscal incentives in the form of feed-in-tariffs and premium tariffs for electricity from solar energy. Tax benefits and reduced VAT rates are also available for PV installations. As of 2017, France received USD 1.4 billion in investments in the solar sector.