It was a long time in the making, but this week Europes largest solar PV plant was finally brought online.

The Cestas solar farm, which is 300 MW and covers a 250-hectare site near to the French city of Bordeaux, was connected to the grid earlier this month and has already begun producing solar power at a price cheaper than that offered by new nuclear plants.

Developed by Neoen for a cost of 360 million ($382 million), Cestas will see its solar energy for a price of 105/MWh ($111/MWh) for 20 years, which is on a par with wind power and cheaper than the cost of new nuclear energy, confirmed Neoen chief executive, Xavier Barbaro.

Frances older nuclear plants, built in the 1970s and 80s, deliver nuclear energy for around 55/MWh, but newer nuclear plants  such as the controversial Hinkley Point development in the U.K., which is being built by French utility EDF  are set to deliver energy for a government-guaranteed price of around 130/MWh.

Barbaro told reporters at the plants inauguration that its east-west orientation (solar farms at this latitude are usually oriented with a southern azimuth) means it can produce three-to-four times more power for the same surface area. This also means early morning and late-afternoon production is higher, mirroring more closely typical demand patterns from the French grid.

The plant is comprised of 25, 12 MW sub-plants and was delivered to the grid via a consortium of largely France-based contributors, including French infrastructure company Eiffage and Schneider Electric.

At 300 MW, it is easily the continents largest single array, and will play its part in pushing France towards 1 GW of new solar PV installations this year, with the country on course to match that in 2016 and 2017, according to projections from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

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