Solar panel installation on the Côte d'Azur, with English-speaking specialists

Most home systems in France run on autoconsommation avec vente du surplus (self-consumption with surplus sold). You use what the panels make as they make it. Whatever you don't use goes to the grid, and EDF OA (obligation d'achat, the state buy-back scheme) buys it under a 20-year contract.

Since June 2026 that surplus earns 1.1 c EUR/kWh before tax. The one-off prime à l'autoconsommation that used to sweeten the deal was abolished at the same time. Each kWh you use yourself saves the full price you'd pay the grid. Each kWh you export earns almost nothing.

So the question to put to an installer is how much of the output you'll use. Panels pay best alongside loads that run in daylight: a pool pump, a heat pump, an electric car charging at home, or a water heater and washing machine on timers.

A second home is harder. The panels work all year, but nobody is there to use the power for much of it. Size the system around the months you're in residence and what runs while you're away. A battery can move midday surplus into the evening, but it changes the sums and the TVA (see below).

You'll mostly see Q Cells (Hanwha) and Canadian Solar, both widely fitted in France and well supported by French installers. SunPower sits at the premium end. It's worth paying for only when roof space is tight and you need the most output per panel.

The bigger choice is the onduleur, the box that turns panel power into household power. A single central unit is the cheapest and suits a simple, unshaded roof. The alternative adds electronics behind each panel instead. It costs more, but it keeps one shaded panel from dragging down the rest, and you can see what each panel produces. It earns its cost on a roof with a chimney, a tree or two orientations. Ask the installer which they chose and why.

Two installers can quote the same number of panels and still be far apart, and the roof usually explains it. A steep or high roof may need scaffolding. Old tiles can crack when someone walks on them, and a villa on a slope can be hard to reach. Ask whether scaffolding and replacing broken tiles are on the devis (written quote).

Shade adds cost too. A chimney, a tree or a roof split over two directions calls for per-panel electronics. Inside the house, an old fuse board may need work before the panels can connect. In a protected zone, the Architecte des Bâtiments de France (the state heritage architect) can set conditions on how the panels look.

TVA is 5.5% on a system up to 9 kWp on an existing home, if the system meets the technical conditions and, since 1 March 2026, the installer holds RGE QualiPV (the state's approved-installer label for solar). Miss either, or go above 9 kWp, and the rate is 20%. A battery on the same invoice also puts the whole job at 20%, panels included, so have it quoted separately.

No grant offsets the bill. MaPrimeRénov' (the state renovation grant) has never covered panels that make electricity, and the prime à l'autoconsommation ended in June 2026. Get at least two written quotes for the same system size, with panels, equipment, scaffolding and grid connection listed line by line. The solar panel costs guide goes into more detail.