Solar and the Grid in the area

 I was curious about the solar panels that I’ve been seeing and how they interacted with the grid in France. This is the report that I was able to obtain. 

The solar panels you noticed on houses around Aubeterre-sur-Dronne are part of a significant change taking place in the French electrical system. France historically relied on a highly centralized grid, particularly nuclear generation, but rooftop photovoltaic generation is increasingly turning individual homes into small electricity producers. By 2025, Enedis reported about 1.3 million renewable-energy producers connected to its distribution network, including roughly 850,000 self-consumers. 

What happens when a French homeowner puts solar panels on the roof?

The homeowner normally remains connected to the public electrical grid. The photovoltaic panels produce DC electricity, and an inverter converts it to the AC electricity used by the house and compatible with the public network. The home’s Linky smart meter can measure electricity flowing between the property and the network. 

The important concept is autoconsommation, or self-consumption.

Imagine one of those Aubeterre houses at noon. The panels are producing 3 kW while the refrigerator, lights and other appliances are consuming 1 kW.

Solar panels → 3 kW → House uses 1 kW → 2 kW surplus → Public grid

The house consumes its own solar electricity first. The homeowner therefore doesn’t have to purchase that portion from an electricity supplier. The unused electricity can then be injected into the local distribution grid. 

Later that evening:

Solar panels → 0 kW → House needs electricity ← Public grid

The homeowner continues buying electricity from their normal supplier. Solar panels generally do not mean the house has disconnected from the grid. Enedis specifically notes that a self-generating household still needs an electricity-supply contract for the electricity its solar installation doesn’t provide. 

What happens to the extra electricity?

This is where the French arrangement gets particularly interesting.

A homeowner has several choices: consume everything produced without exporting it, consume some and inject the surplus into the grid, or configure an installation to sell all of its production. Enedis formally recognizes all three arrangements. 

For the houses you saw, self-consumption plus surplus injection would be a very plausible arrangement, although we cannot determine an individual home’s contract merely by seeing its panels.

Under that arrangement, excess electricity goes into the public distribution network. It can be sold under an electricity-purchase contract, including France’s Obligation d’Achat mechanism, or through other eligible electricity buyers. 

So the electricity from one sunny Aubeterre roof doesn’t necessarily stay associated with that particular house. Once injected, it becomes part of the distribution system serving local demand.

The Linky meter makes this possible

France’s ubiquitous green Linky smart meter is an important part of this system. Enedis says Linky can measure electricity consumption and, for solar producers, track production/injection information. About 96% of French households now have Linky meters. 

Conceptually, the meter is keeping track of two directions:

Grid → House: electricity purchased.

House → Grid: surplus solar electricity exported.

This means the homeowner doesn’t have to physically decide where the electricity goes. The electrical system handles that automatically.

What does the homeowner actually have to do?

It is more formal than simply buying panels and connecting them.

For a grid-connected installation, the homeowner or installer submits the production/raccordement project to Enedis, the distribution-network operator. Depending upon the installation, electrical conformity certification through Consuel may also be required. Enedis then commissions the installation under the appropriate contractual arrangement. Electricity must not be injected into the public network before Enedis has authorized commissioning. 

Enedis guide to installing and connecting residential solar generation⁠

There can also be an urban-planning dimension. In a historic village such as Aubeterre-sur-Dronne, where architecture and streetscapes may be protected, what can be installed and where can be more constrained than in an ordinary modern subdivision. That is a separate issue from the electrical-grid connection itself.

What about batteries?

A homeowner can install battery storage, but a battery isn’t necessary for grid-connected solar.

Without a battery:

Sun → panels → house → excess to grid.

With a battery:

Sun → panels → house → excess to battery → later used by house → remaining needs supplied by grid.

Enedis specifically recognizes batteries as a way of shifting surplus daytime generation for later household use. 

This matters because solar production and household demand don’t naturally coincide. A home may produce heavily at midday when nobody is home and consume heavily in the evening when the panels produce little or nothing.

There is an important misconception about a blackout

Being covered with solar panels does not necessarily mean that a French house continues operating when the electrical grid fails.

Ordinary grid-connected photovoltaic inverters are designed with grid-safety protections. A properly configured system must not simply continue energizing the public distribution line during an outage, because a utility worker could otherwise encounter a line believed to be de-energized.

To have meaningful backup capability generally requires equipment specifically designed for island/backup operation, typically involving appropriate inverter and switching equipment and often battery storage.

So the public grid remains very important even to the solar homeowner.

What you were actually seeing in Aubeterre

This connects beautifully with the street-cover photographs you took earlier.

Above your head were 21st-century electricity generators sitting on centuries-old French roofs.

Under your feet were access chambers, cables, water systems, drainage networks and other modern infrastructure hidden beneath streets that still look historic.

And between the two is the electrical distribution network.

A house that once existed solely as an electricity consumer can now become both a consumer and a producer. On a sunny afternoon it may send electricity into the network. That evening it draws electricity back from the network.

That contrast could make an excellent companion section to the piece about the utility covers:

I had been looking down at Aubeterre’s streets, fascinated by the iron covers marking the hidden networks beneath my feet. Then I looked up. Several of the old houses had solar panels on their roofs. It was another reminder that this ancient-looking village is anything but frozen in time. Beneath the streets runs a modern electrical network, while above them individual homeowners are beginning to generate electricity of their own. During a sunny afternoon a house may consume what its panels produce and send the excess into the public grid. After sunset, the flow reverses and the same house draws electricity from the network. Old stone, new technology, and an electrical grid quietly connecting the two.