Abstract EN:

This thesis explores the recent evolutions of photovoltaics in France, and in particular the rise of grid-connected photovoltaics as it was triggered by support policies set up in the 2000s. The chosen actor-network theory approach leads to a material and relational description of French photovoltaics as a modular technology whose development was driven by political prices in the shape of feed-in tariffs for PV-generated electricity. From this perspective, the intertwinement of technological evolutions, market-making and politicisation is interrogated. After suggesting a description of photovoltaics as emergent modular technologies and of feed-in tariffs as political market agencements, the thesis analyses the interwoven trajectories of feed-in tariffs and photovoltaics in three sites. First, it traces back the constitions of feed-in tariffs as a dominant form of support to photovoltaics in the context of the development of a European Policy for renewable energy. It then zooms on the French case, where the overflowing of the regulated photovoltaic market triggered a political crisis and led to the reconsideration of photovoltaic support schemes. The last case study is a material exploration of the constitution of feed-in tariffs photovoltaic market triggered a political crisis and led to the reconsideration of photovoltaic support schemes. The last case study is a material exploration of the constitution of feed-in tariffs for PV-generated electricity into an opportunity and a resource for territorial development in the context of a project developed by a rural cooperative in the South-West of France.