Salut from France, just planing, but many questions

Solalar · May 18, 2022

Salut/Hallo/hi there

I just found this very nice forum and I thought, many more crazy (in a positive way) people like me, here I need to join.

A little background, I'm a German living in France, very close to the border of Germany and Switzerland.
I'm working as information scientist ans I like everything that is challenging and technical tricky but doable ;-)

Now I'm planing to install some PV on my house in France.

I have allready an P&P Hoymiles installation with 2 x Soluxtec 400Wp running, but that's not enough.

My biggest conern is the regulation part of the job.
My french is not good enough to get a clear picture on that. What I know so far from my power supplier, that for an P&P inverter, there is nothing to concerne other than it can't be stronger that my main fuse and registered main lead is, but that's somehow obvious

Any other installation needs to be registered to EDF/Enedis in France.

I'm looking for an roof installation between 3 to 6 KWp, maybe bigger in the future. SMA, SolarEdge or Fronius have been taken into account, maybe also other.

But before I want to go to deep into details and waste time of other members here, my main question:
Is somebody here from france who really know what the regulations are?
Is an prof. registered electrician necessary to control and power up everything? What else is needed?

Sorry to say, but in France sometimes it is like ask 10 People (even professionals) the same question and you will get 15 different answers ?

Looking really forward to you answers and also later to discuss the ideas here a little more in details!
Thanks for all for reading so far!

Cheers
Lars

Crossy5 · Sep 12, 2022

Hi Lars

I'm in a similar position to you, really struggling to find information. I'm a UK expat living in France, trying to find info is a nightmare.

As far as I can find out 3kw just do a declaration prèable at your mairie. That's it unless they object.
Over 3kw you need the same but then Enedis needs to carry out a consiel (Some of my French spelling might be off).

As far as I can find that's it, you can diy or get it done by a pro, it would still need inspection.

Good luck, we need to stay in touch?

Solalar · Sep 12, 2022

Hey Crossy5

In what region you are living?

I have not reported back here or wrote anything additional because I have not seen any responses so far.

My 3KW installation is installed running meanwhile. Officialy reported to "Marie" and Enedis with their adminssion.

in short:
-> Marie: is necessary for the work and if you are not living in a special area, they almost can't say no
-> Enedi: with a special certification of the inverter, you can install it "plug and play" without consuel certification up to 3KW. But you can't sell the surplus.

Cheers
Lars

Crossy5 · Sep 12, 2022

Solalar said:
Hey Crossy5

In what region you are living?

I have not reported back here or wrote anything additional because I have not seen any responses so far.

My 3KW installation is installed running meanwhile. Officialy reported to "Marie" and Enedis with their adminssion.

in short:
-> Marie: is necessary for the work and if you are not living in a special area, they almost can't say no
-> Enedi: with a special certification of the inverter, you can install it "plug and play" without consuel certification up to 3KW. But you can't sell the surplus.

Cheers
Lars

Thanks for the update. I'm in 16 Charente. I want to go 9kw so will need inspection unfortunately.

I'm having trouble finding something that'll do everything I want it to. It's got to be grid tied but I also want island so if the grid goes down I can still use everything as normal (to a much lesser degree obviously). I'm begining to think I'll need a separate inverter for that but.

mrzed001 · Sep 12, 2022

I do not now the local regulations ... but the overall EU regulation is like
- you can use Off-grid (with grid support) inverters freely like MPP Solar/Voltronic Axpert inverters
- for selling to grid you need permit. And in many countries you can use only the utility allowed Grid-Tie inverters
- There are REAL hybrid inverters like Voltronic Infinisolar, Deye, Victron. The real hybrids are both: Grid-Tie and Off-grid inverters in one.
- So with a real hybrid you can sell to utility, and when there is a blackout it will power your house from battery + PV
- There are some (childish) hybridized Grid-tie inverters like Fronius GEN24 and Huawei Sun2000. They need an external Backup Box to go Off-grid ... and many utility does not allow it (fears it).

If there are other questions in the topic, feel free to ask

Crossy5 · Sep 12, 2022

mrzed001 said:
I do not now the local regulations ... but the overall EU regulation is like
- you can use Off-grid (with grid support) inverters freely like MPP Solar/Voltronic Axpert inverters
- for selling to grid you need permit. And in many countries you can use only the utility allowed Grid-Tie inverters
- There are REAL hybrid inverters like Voltronic Infinisolar, Deye, Victron. The real hybrids are both: Grid-Tie and Off-grid inverters in one.
- So with a real hybrid you can sell to utility, and when there is a blackout it will power your house from battery + PV
- There are some (childish) hybridized Grid-tie inverters like Fronius GEN24 and Huawei Sun2000. They need an external Backup Box to go Off-grid ... and many utility does not allow it (fears it).

If there are other questions in the topic, feel free to ask

Awesome, thanks so much for your reply. I've heard Sunsync are a copy of the Deye inverters and offer some great features. As far as I can tell the SMA sunny Tripower smart energy can charge a battery without a separate charge controller. Do you know I'd any of the ones you mentioned can do this? Or indeed, if the SMA can?

Lars, j think our 1st port of call might be to go with a grown up to ask some technical questions of Enedis. I have a bilingual electrician friend but he's very busy so difficult to tie down. I'll see what I can do and report back.

Solalar · Sep 12, 2022

What I have learned over the past months is, that even France is in the EU, a lot of rules, regulations and laws are not yet implemented in France.
So be careful with "in the EU" or "EU regulations". As far as I know, but this is clearly NOT confirmed, a country has up to 5 year to impelent EU regulations.

Also what I have learned, just an Electrician can't do anything in France when it comes to Solar. He needs some special certifications. Down in the real ugly regulations, you can find such rules, but it is very hard to find and translate, as they are written in very hard to understand french word, sentences and so on.

But I agree, I also want to extend my installation, but at the moment I don,t know what to to.
Enedis has some people that might can help you when you send them a email, but it is only about very basic questions. When it comes to more technical questions, the very often state "please asky our electrician"....

tonyg · Sep 12, 2022

Salut! Welcome to the forum and hope your journey goes well!

Not an answer to your question, but thought it is good to mention now that you're still in the opening phase that I've used Victron equipment and it's brilliant!

mrzed001 · Sep 13, 2022

Crossy5 said:
Awesome, thanks so much for your reply. I've heard Sunsync are a copy of the Deye inverters and offer some great features. As far as I can tell the SMA sunny Tripower smart energy can charge a battery without a separate charge controller. Do you know I'd any of the ones you mentioned can do this? Or indeed, if the SMA can?

Lars, j think our 1st port of call might be to go with a grown up to ask some technical questions of Enedis. I have a bilingual electrician friend but he's very busy so difficult to tie down. I'll see what I can do and report back.

SunSynk is Deye. They only made a new Firmware for it, and the display's main screens are more user friendly.

Tripower needs a High V DC battery system. It can charge it directly from PV ... but I did not like this solution.
There is no isolation between the battery and PV and AC line then.

Deye, Voltronic Infinisolar needs 48V battery system and they have isolation battery side.

sergea · Sep 13, 2022

Solalar said:
Salut/Hallo/hi there

I just found this very nice forum and I thought, many more crazy (in a positive way) people like me, here I need to join.

A little background, I'm a German living in France, very close to the border of Germany and Switzerland.
I'm working as information scientist ans I like everything that is challenging and technical tricky but doable ;-)

Now I'm planing to install some PV on my house in France.

I have allready an P&P Hoymiles installation with 2 x Soluxtec 400Wp running, but that's not enough.

My biggest conern is the regulation part of the job.
My french is not good enough to get a clear picture on that. What I know so far from my power supplier, that for an P&P inverter, there is nothing to concerne other than it can't be stronger that my main fuse and registered main lead is, but that's somehow obvious

Any other installation needs to be registered to EDF/Enedis in France.

I'm looking for an roof installation between 3 to 6 KWp, maybe bigger in the future. SMA, SolarEdge or Fronius have been taken into account, maybe also other.

But before I want to go to deep into details and waste time of other members here, my main question:
Is somebody here from france who really know what the regulations are?
Is an prof. registered electrician necessary to control and power up everything? What else is needed?

Sorry to say, but in France sometimes it is like ask 10 People (even professionals) the same question and you will get 15 different answers ?

Looking really forward to you answers and also later to discuss the ideas here a little more in details!
Thanks for all for reading so far!

Cheers
Lars

Welcome, as long as you are not injecting into the grid, nobody care. If you are injecting the inverter installation need to be done by a certified installer. If you going to add panel on your roof you need to check with your municipality for any specific rules regarding your roof. In most case a simple déclaration is enough and they will come back to you if you need to comply any anything special.

Let me find the link to a summary of the regulation here.

Crossy5 · Sep 14, 2022

sergea said:
Welcome, as long as you are not injecting into the grid, nobody care. If you are injecting the inverter installation need to be done by a certified installer. If you going to add panel on your roof you need to check with your municipality for any specific rules regarding your roof. In most case a simple déclaration is enough and they will come back to you if you need to comply any anything special.

Let me find the link to a summary of the regulation here.

Good info thanks for sharing. So it's not a problem over 3kw (9kW, 3kW/phase) apart from Enedis consiel?

Chriss11 · Mar 12, 2024

Is there any news on this topic? Im in the same boat.

Salut from France, just planing, but many questions

Solalar

New Member

Crossy5

New Member

Solalar

New Member

Crossy5

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mrzed001

Voice of reason

Crossy5

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Solalar

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tonyg

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mrzed001

Voice of reason

sergea

Solar Enthusiast

Crossy5

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Chriss11

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