The European Commission has given the go ahead to a major government-backed solar power project in France.
The EC will not raise objections under EC Treaty state aid rules to the financial support of €46.5m that the French government plans to grant to the Solar Nano Crystal R&D programme.
The objective of the programme, which is being implemented by a consortium led by PV Alliance LabFab, is to develop a complete range of solar energy technologies, from the production of silicon to the module for obtaining solar energy.
"The Solar Nano Crystal programme is coherent with our approach to encourage the use of alternative energies, while boosting competitiveness and avoiding any disproportionate distortion of competition,” said EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes.
The project aims to develop high efficiency materials used to build up cells, namely metallurgic silicon and polycrystalline silicon. It will be carried out by PV LabFab, a pilot facility set up to carry out the research, test it and validate it, whose shareholders are EDF-ENR, Photowatt and CEA-INES.
According to the Commission, the Solar Nano Crystal programme “remedies certain market failures, such as the fact that the environmental benefits of the research cannot be appropriated by the company and the difficulties to obtain financing due to the high risks of the project”.
Moreover, the programme will have benefits for the environment, since it aims at reducing CO2 emissions and the EU's energy dependence by 2013.